Above the Sea
by Insertusernamehere27
Summary: A young mermaid is granted legs and sent to the world above with one purpose: to make the prince fall in love with her so her kind can destroy the kingdom for their long awaited revenge of the first war. Things are not always as the storybooks tell
1. A Strange Tale

It was raining again. Almost as though the heavens were ready to pour forth an endless array. But if anything, he preferred things this way. As much as he wanted to shake the past, water was everywhere. A constant reminder. Staring out to the crashing waves also brought back the memories. It was to be a long night.

But eventually the rain ceased. Beams of sunlight peered out from the grey clouds and the sand shone once more. Such promise. But the promise only brought regret. Small droplets continued to drip, almost as though they were giving him a message. A message that the storm would never truly be over.

.

For others, the rain brought only enjoyment. The beach was suddenly filled with the delighted squeals of children, running about with absolute freedom and joy. There were four of them, all young with gleaming smiles at the day. He hated them.

The fastest, a boy by the name of Lucas, ran ahead of the others, so eager to reach the gleaming sand. Fighting through the last trace of bush, he saw the sea. For a moment, he paused. And one could see the complete wonder and awe that came from one so young and innocent. But this moment was brief as his youth pushed him to race onward. The second child, Jonathon, tripped upon arrival but quickly caught up. A young girl named Kalia ran straight for the water, hitching up her skirts and ignoring the piercing cold. Eve took her time. Unlike the others, she hated beaches and everything that came with. The sand, always catching and refusing to be brushed away. The water, painfully cold and rough. The sun, burning down upon ones skin. Every minor aspect was glared upon. Each frustrated step caused her perfectly styled hair to fall slightly more out of place, strand by strand. But even she could not deny the beauty before them. There was something almost ethereal about the abandoned wonder. For there was no one there. No one aside from him. And now the children.

All merriment was broken as he emerged. Each child froze and gapped at the strange scuffled man who hobbled toward them, furiously yelling, "get off my beach!"

Any sane child would have sprinted for dare life. But Jonathon had never been a wise child. Ignoring his trembling knees, he spoke, saying, "You can't really own a beach."

The logic in the boys words did make him pause. Normally, his mere appearance would send intruders flying. It was clear that he was going to have to change tactics. "You don't want to be 'round these parts. Viscous blood-thirsty monsters are everywhere."

"Monsters?" Eve gasped, looking rather faint.

"Worse," he said, in a voice barley above a whisper. "Merfolk."

The words did not have the desired effect. Each and every child sank back in relief and a few of the braver ones laughed. A horrid snorting sound. Such innocence. They had no idea. Lucas managed to speak between chuckles. "Mermaids aren't scary! They don't hurt anyone!"

"Is that so?" he said, face darkening in anger. "Well with my own eyes, I have seen hundreds of merfolk rampaging about the kingdom, making blood run from any unfortunate human they could lay their filthy hands on. Warriors. Women. Even innocent children like yourselves. It didn't matter to them. Blood fascinates them you see. It's different out of water. A completely new experience. Everything, the smell of it. The way it drips out of a person. They would cut you, imp from limp. And mangle your little bodies until the bravest of warriors would turn away to keep from being sick on your already mutilated corpses."

Each child gulped. The man was clearly insane. And slowly they began to back away.

Feeling that his point had been made, he turned and limped back to his hut.

Taking their chance, the children ran, faster than their legs had ever moved before. He relished in the sounds of their fear. But if he had listened a little closer, he would have noticed the sound of only three sets of footprints. For one child remained. The smallest child, Kalia had remained. And seen the tears that had escaped onto his cheeks. They were brushed away in an instant as she cautiously crept up to him, much to the astonishment of both him and her friends. There was no sound uttered for everyone. Just anxious waiting I anticipation of what she would do. Finally, she rested a hand on his shoulder, looking to comfort him. He leapt away, acting as though her touch burned him and continued to glare at her, praying she that she too would flee. "What is your name?" she asked, in a clear and beautiful voice. But the thing that he really noticed was show brave she sounded. Not a trace of fear was present. He ignored her regardless. But much to his annoyance, this had little effect on her. "Why do you want us to leave?" she asked. "And why were you crying?"

"Why do you ask so many questions?" he growled.

"Why don't you answer any?" she asked back.

To her surprise, he laughed. Well, she suspected that it was a laugh. The sound that emerged was an odd scratchy noise. Almost as though he had forgotten how to achieve the very action of laughing. The laugh took him by surprise as well and he quickly composed himself. Shaking his head, he finally voiced what bothered him, "you remind me of someone." He refused to say more and thankfully she seemed to realise this. What she refused to realise was how much he obviously wanted her to leave. "What?" he barked, "don't tell me, you have even more questions."

Those words were foolish. She saw this as passageway of acceptance to ramble.  
"Well all of the ones from before. And why are you so angry? And why do you look like you never bathe? Why do you want us to leave so badly? And why do you think merfolk a monsters? Why should they scare us? Aren't they magical mythical creatures? What happened?"

He sighed and supposed that the only way to silence was to give her what she wanted. Another memory. And what she wanted was answers. "I am angry because I'm tired alright? I'm not as young as I used to be! You have no idea how much pain I am in every single day! I don't bathe because I don't see the point. And I hate water. And merfolk are evil because… because they just are!"

Obviously this was not answer enough by her standards as she remained staunch. Worse still, the others had snuck back, instantly intrigued by their words. It was obvious that he would not achieve that blessed isolation for a while. By the thoughtful expression on her face, it was clear that she had another stream of questions at the ready and was thinking of the best way to spit them out. He stopped her instantly, slowly and menacingly saying, "Don't, you, dare."

Both simply regarded each other, eyeing the other up and down, daring. Enough time passed and he settled down on a stool, proud at his battle won.

"How do you know so much about mermaids?" she blurted and he raised his eyes skyward from internal agony.

The other three stepped back in a hurry, avoiding the obvious fit that was brewing. But nothing came, only an eerie calm as he continued to study her."

"So, you want to know about mermaids?"

She shook her eagerly. The others did so with less vigor but the curiosity was still apparent.

"Well, I suppose I could tell you everything I know. Do you know about the Kingdom of Eravonia?"

"Were you there?" Jonathon asked, finally plucking up the courage to speak. "At the infiltration I mean."

"The what?" Lucas asked, crinkling his nose in confusion.

"He means the infiltration of merfolk in Eravonia," the man said, clearly angered that the boy had no idea of its importance.

"They can't do that!" Lucas said, nose still crinkled. "They couldn't get past the wall. It's magical isn't it."

The man sighed, cursing the heaven that he had been sent such dim children.

"So were you there?" Kalia asked gently, already sensing the answer.

"Yes," he said gruffly, almost losing himself. Her mouth opened once more but before a sound could be uttered, he quickly cut her off. "Don't you dare even think of interrupting me! If you want to know the damned story, you will shut your face and listen. Well? Do you think you can do that?" They all eagerly nodded, mouths pressed shut.

Sighing, he began. "Yes, I was there. And I lost everything. So I found out everything. I had to know why I had lost what I did! So I asked anyone living who had even the smallest connection. And then I left. Came here. To be alone!"

Kalia sat down, getting herself comfortable and the other children followed. Obviously they weren't going anywhere. "remember, interrupt me and we're done," he growled.

And then he began.

.

.

.

This story is of a little mermaid. Well, young rather than little.

Young in age. Age reflected by naivety.

Merfolk live a lot longer than humans you see. Three hundreds years longer normally. So at the young age of sixteen, she had barley begun what should have been a carefree life.

She knew nothing of the great war. No one did, humans and merfolk alike. And that is not important to the tale. Legends are passed down and most people consider them to be just that, legends. Or Tales to pass the time. But they were real. Merfolk and humans used to live in perfect harmony in the great kingdom of Eravonia. Then the stories changed, depending on who was telling it. A mermaid or merman would claim that the humans turned on them, seeking their powers and fearing them. They had every reason to fear them after all. Merfolk had such strong powers, the kind that humans cannot even begin to fathom. These powers are passed through the simple act of touch. This power is lethal to humans. So to simply brush against a mermaid would pass along this power, causing them to grow so very weak. Weakness that would eventually result in death if enough power was exposed.

Yet if you ask a human scholar of the war, they would tell you it was a land war, in which the merfolk sought for control of the Kingdom. Eravonia was built upon one of the most powerful sites known to man. All magic is greatly magnified, making it all the more desirable. He who controls the power, could control all. And merfolk are ambitious creatures. So the reasoning is not so far fetched.

But whatever the reasoning, the battle happened. And so many lives were lost.

Eventually, the merfolk were defeated, having been driven back to the sea thanks to the desperate need for it. Human folk took advantage of their absence and built a magical wall, guarded by only one gate. This gate stopped all magical enemies from entered with fear of death.

So with clearly certainty, the merfolk were defeated. And it stayed that way, for hundreds of years. For humans, the battle became little more than a bedtime story for children and it's believability was questioned. But merfolk never forgot, choosing instead to brew on their angry until it grew and grew. Revenge was constantly on the horizon.

Events faded. But the hatred never did.

But Ariana knew nothing of any of that. She is the little mermaid in question, if you didn't pick up on that. A lively and sociable soul she was. Always so happy. So curious. To her, the ocean was an adventure, ready to be explored. There weren't normal qualities displayed by normal merfolk. Others always kept to themselves, enjoying the calm serenity that the ocean had to offer. She had always hated that sort of thing. And her poor friend Florence paid the price.

He was middle-aged for a merman. Only 179 years of his life had passed. And he was just about reaching that stage of his life where he yearned to simply laze about in blissful ocean peace. But such acts were out of the question when Ariana was around. And sadly for him, he had literally had to deal with this for her entire life. For he had practically raised her. This had created a soft spot that helped him deal with her constant annoying social interactions. But sleep was still so important to him. Constant adventures were always being had in her youth that he hated. But what he had failed to realise was how much it would worsen when she turned sixteen and reaching what he liked to call her 'rebellious' stage. But then again, this sort of thing does tend to happen when your Father is King of the ocean. This didn't say much really. Merfolk had so few rules to abide by. Aside from humans, nothing phased them. The trouble with so few rules, were that they were less for Arian to break. And she did so enjoy to break them. Hence, the only one left was interaction with the human world. Which naturally fascinated her to great end. So much to the complaint of Florence, Ariana loved to see how close to the surface she would dare to reach. What made him extremely nervous was the way that each time she tried, she would get closer. The fear loomed over him that one day she would reach it. When that day came, he knew that trouble would follow.

And trouble was exactly the kind of thing that he really didn't want.

Our tale begins on a not so special day. Nothing any remotely special was supposed to occur. It was around mid-day, Florence supposed. Time was never certain in the ocean. Florence had learnt to roughly tell the time of day from the distant image of the sun's positioning, though it blurred thoroughly and one had to be quite high up to try to make it out. Once high enough, one could suppose the time from the light that surrounded you as well as the distant sun. But the sun had always made Florence nervous. So he avoided it and guessed away. Besides, he had to take advantage of Ariana's absence. And he couldn't remember the last time he had managed to have an un-interrupted mid-day slumber. The silence of the ocean floor lulled him into said slumber as he sprawled across a large rock. It became a beautiful melody as the dream state enveloped him.

This didn't last long but he didn't expect it to. Her voice rang through his dreary state as he heard her calling his name. Mermaids have exceptional hearing in water. He didn't know where she was but he prayed that if he stayed silent enough, she might allow him a little more sleeping time. Staying stock still, he waited as the calling died away. Smugly he rolled over and never fell off his rock when he saw her sitting next to him. She was so beautiful, even for a mermaid. Her blue and silver scales shone across that pale skin. Her hair glided about with the current, looking almost silver in the dim ocean light. It wasn't from these that beauty was created. All merfolk had these features. It was in her eyes. They always sparkled with such life and laughter. She laughed at the shock in his eyes and took advantage of his moment of confusion to push him off the rock.

"How dare you try and hide from me?" she said, trying to act angry as she watched him trying to regain his composure and dignity. He was failing at this.

"Cant I just have one afternoon free of trouble, panic and dismay? In other words, an afternoon free from Ariana."

She mocked a look of hurt but he knew that his words didn't affect her. "But Florence you have" much to his confusion. "Look around you, its sunset. So now you've had your Ariana free afternoon you can have a night full of my superb company." He groaned as he realised that all hope of sleep had gone. "Stop groaning," she told him as he ignored her "and stop being boring. Maybe Ill go up onto human land and find a human, a sorceress and a few annoying pixies and bring them back to see if I can ever get you to be interesting."

Then he said the words he would forever regret. "You've never made it to the surface before so I doubt you'll do it now." His eyes snapped open as she swam away and he realised what he had said. "That was not a challenge," he yelled after her but there was determination on her face that he knew meant her mind was made up. "We're just joking around right?" he asked as he managed to catch up "you're not really going to the surface are you?" The look on her face clearly meant she was. They were swimming higher. This made Florence nervous. Images of barbaric humans raced through his mind as he contemplated what could easily happen if she went through with this. They were higher then they had ever been before. They were getting closer and closer and both came to an abrupt holt as the reached the top.

"Think about this" he pleaded one last time as she too contemplated the horrors that may await her. "Everything is just fine down here, why do you need more?" She knew his words made sense but was extremely stubborn and knew that she would never back out now. Still, she was afraid. She knew that she was mere inches from the thing that some called air. Curiosity began to overcome her fear. What is this thing that people could use as a water substitute? She longed to feel it and to experience it. Slowly, she raised her hand until it broke the surface.

An odd feeling came over the hand. She recognised the cold aspect of this feeling. The sharp wind soared past the hand leaving it freezing after its bitter exposure to this new substance. Here was also another feeling that she couldn't describe. Florence was pestering her with questions over what it felt like and demands that's she lower her hand immediately. She barley heard him. This odd sensation required her full attention. It wasn't a bad feeling. Slowly she swam up a little until her whole head was above the water. She didn't even think of the feel of the wind anymore. She was too amazed as she took in her surroundings. The water looked so different from the top. It was so flat except for the odd little waves that kept brushing against her. She wondered to herself 'what am I doing looking at the water? I can see water anytime.' Fearing the worst she raised her head for her first look at the sky.

The view took her breath away. He sun was in the middle of setting and the sky was streaked with bright colours that she rarely saw in the ocean. The brightness pained her eyes and she found it impossible to stare directly into the light. Shielding her eyes she looked further. A little speck way off in the distance caught her attention. Lowering herself back down to Florence's level she told him "you have to see this. There is nothing to be afraid of, it's so beautiful. And I think there is a boat over in the North. Wouldn't it be exciting to see a boat before it sinks?" Her excitement slowly trailed away when she saw the look on his face.

"I think I've had enough excitement for one day," he said as he began to swim lower "I would suggest that you come with me but I know you hate listening to anything practical and logical." She wanted to follow him so she could pull him back up with her and help him to experience the wonder that she had just witnessed. But she knew that the boat was sailing further away and her desire to follow it defeated the desire to bring her friend back. He would only nag anyway.

Full of excitement, she swam quickly after the boat. The anticipation rose as she realised that she was about to see her first human.


	2. Daring the Surface

Boats were another thing that were much different above water. The colours were fresh and new in comparison to the old boat ruins she had seen destroyed on the sea floor. The silence from those boats had also changed. From her past she remembered an eerie silence around the sunken ships, even eerier than the rest of the ocean. There had been something about the fact that people may have died on those boats that made even Ariana stop talking when she was around them. This boat however, was full of life. She could hear music and singing and the stomping of feet that must have been people dancing. Dancing had always fascinated her. There wasn't much she could do in the way of trying to dance herself, what with having no legs. It still fascinated her.

The sides of the boat had some planks that stuck out a little more then the others and she managed to climb the side. From a small hole in the side she watched.

Here she saw her first human. She thought he was beautiful. Peculiar but beautiful. She quickly realised that this was not the case as she spied another human which made it apparent that the first human was no the best looking as he was cursed with rather large features. The second also proved to be not as beautiful as she had planned as he sported many wrinkles. This was all extremely new to Ariana. Merfolk stayed young and beautiful and looked quite similar due to similar characteristics. All mermaids had hair that was a hard colour to describe. In some lights it was silver but it most it was a pale blonde. To tell each other apart however, merfolk added their own unique spin to the hair that could easily have made them identical. It was still hard to spot differences at times. All of them had eyes as blue as the sea. The scales on their tales blue and silver so as to blend into the water better and avoid enemies.

Ariana had been raised seeing that everyone looked the same so the differences in humans shocked her. She still found them beautiful and if not beautiful, extremely interesting. They varied in every aspect, no human looked all like any other. That was until she saw what must have been twin brothers. But even then, something made them look different to each other.

One of the wrinklier men raised his glass in an odd fashion that made everyone stop talking and turn to face him. He coughed a few times and began to speak. "My dearest comrades, it is with great pleasure that we return home today for no only have we completed out quest but we also return home against all odds. Odds that surely must grant our leader favour in the view of the King. Eric, kindly step up and say some words to your men." There was silence as everyone looked around, looking for this leader. One man detached himself from the crowd and ran into the lower of deck of the ship. He shortly returned with who must be this Eric they were talking about. Everyone broke out in applause even though the man looked extremely uncomfortable at it and tried to hush the men down.

"Right" he said when the clapping had slowed down enough to let him get some words in. "Sanford has requested that I say a few words. And well, I'm hoping those words shall be made clear to me soon." He made everyone laugh. After this they stayed transfixed on him. He was clearly a born leader and the people adored him. Ariana also found that she could not look away. She was intrigued by him. Unlike many of the me around him, Ariana could make out no ugly qualities. Everything about him practically screamed perfection. She looked at his dark hair and the way that part of it kept falling in his eyes no matter how many times he pushed it back. His brown eyes had something about him that made her know that he was a kind man. He looked calmly over the crowd though it was clear by his body language that he was rather uncomfortable with speeches.

Ariana realised that as she had been so absorbed in him she had missed his speech. The people were clapping again which seemed to be a sign that he was done. He walked amongst he crowd now, addressing everyone.

Someone was trying to get his attention and yelled "your highness' before he finally turned around. So he was a Prince. It made sense to Ariana, she knew there was something about him that seemed regal.

Ariana stayed on the side of the ship for quite some time, watching everything they did. Their dancing particularly amused her. She had heard tales of humans doing moving around to music and know she finally witnessed it, she thought that looked ridiculous. The men all seemed a little idiotic, it seemed to be due to whatever it was they were drinking. The more they drank, the clumsier they seemed to get. Ariana was very confused as she wondered why humans would want a drink that made them act in such a manner. The Prince seemed to hang back and refused the drink. She was glad, she didn't like the way the other men were acting. Still, she was fascinated by them. Every small thing was so new to her. All of the things on the ship were strange and exciting. She found herself wishing that there were a way that she could go on the ship and experience these things too. But such thought were crazy. They may seem friendly now but to jump on this ship now would show their true nature.

All her life, Ariana had been warned of one thing, the danger of going above the ocean because of what humans would do. She had been terrified of the horrors that had been told of the things that humans had done to merfolk all those years ago in the war. Apparently humans had a fascination of how humans functioned. They used the war as an excuse to perform experiments of the merfolk. Well they called them experiments. Apparently there was nothing experimental about them other then the experiment of how mush pain they could inflict. But she desperately wondered if maybe humans had grown kinder over the years, after all it had been hundreds of years ago. Surely they would have forgotten about merfolk by now. Maybe it was time to stop seeking revenge.

She knew her thoughts were crazy. The fighting would continue, regardless of whether anyone knew what it was about or not. She would never be able to be on a boat unless it had sunken to the bottom of the ocean and no life remained on it.

A rumble of thunder brought her out of her stupor. It made everyone on the ship pause too. "There seems to be a storm coming" the man Eric called Sanford commented.

"We are so close to home," Eric said as he looked into the horizon "the weather wouldn't dare."

…..

The weather did dare. A storm quickly raged. Lightning flowed the thunder and the waves began crashing around the ship. Men ran around trying desperately to do anything useful as water poured in. Eric was among them, despite Sanford demanded that he go below deck. "I refuse to sit twiddling my thumbs while the ship goes down" he yelled as Sanford decided that he didn't have the time to argue and ran below deck. Eric couldn't blame Sanford for his cowardess. He wasn't a knight and had no wish to be. He was merely his servant of whom his father had insisted accompany him on his journey. He had been more of a hindrance then help. The only thing he was good at was eating more food then most of the men put together. Eric did hope that when a crisis such as this arose, Sanford would rise to the occasion. Clearly he was wrong.

They were fighting a losing battle. Water was entering the boat at a rapid pace and they couldn't keep up with it. One of the men, Scott was having trouble of one side of the ship and Eric ran over to help him. His timing couldn't have been worse as a large wave caused the boat to rock furiously which made Eric lose his balance and hurtle over the edge into the crashing waves below.

He fought to swim up for air but he waves were strong. The second he made it up to breath another wave would knock him down again.

He grew exhausted quickly. Distantly over the roar of the wind and waves he could hear the men on the ship urgently shouting. He knew that they were too late. He sank down and as he lost consciences he could have worn he saw a large fish swim by.

Meanwhile Ariana had been watching from a distance and heard the cries of distress. She heard that Eric had gone overboard. Her first instinct naturally was to save him but then she remembered the words of her father. "Humans cannot handle mermaid power. That is our blessing. Too much contact results in their death." She could see him in the water now, struggling to swim up for air. The waves were too strong for him.

Eventually he stopped resurfacing.

Ariana stopped hesitating. She swam as fast as she could to where she had seen him go under and found his quickly sinking. Ignoring the consequences she grabbed him by the arm and willed him to breathe. A light passed from her to him and to her delight she saw his chest begin to rise and fall.

Now she had to figure out what to do with him. She couldn't just swim up to the boat, give him back and hope that no one noticed the tail. So she kept heading North in what she assumed must be the way to his kingdom.

It was further away then she expected. The sun was rising by the time she found a beach. Fear quickly hit her. She had been holding his arm for half the night, surely that must mean that he wouldn't make it. She had always been told that a slightest touch could kill a human if they were weak enough. There was no way of checking for a pulse or heartbeat without touching him so she waited for any sign of life or death.

She didn't have to wait long. Unexpectedly, he opened his eyes. Her first instinct should have been to move quickly but the thought didn't cross her mind. She couldn't look away from his eyes. From far away she had thought they were beautiful but from close up they were mesmerizing. He shut them again quickly as he became unconscious again. Quickly realising what she had risked, Ariana checked her tail. There was no way he could have seen it. The only thing in his line of vision was her face and there was no danger of his seeing that again. Reluctantly she returned to the ocean and watched from afar until he was found and carried away.

Meanwhile, she could not stifle the wish that he could have remained there.

With deep sadness, she returned to the deep.


	3. Returning Memory

Eric awoke to find himself safely back at the palace. It took him a few seconds to realise exactly where he was, it had been so long since he had been here. The silly quest had meant he had not seen his home for many months. Everything was still the same that he could see. He was in his room, which was, and never would be as fancy as that of his brothers. They may have practically the same furniture but his brothers had covered their walls and shelves with trophies from various quests. Eric had never liked that sort of thing but it was expected that Prince's continuously participate in such pointless antics to prove themselves to the King and become the next ruler. In Eric's opinion, quests were stupid, and taking trophies was only a form of showing off.

He now struggled to remember how he got back there. He remembered setting sail but surely he would never forget his grand return home. He hoped it hadn't been one of those parties where his men encourage him to drink too much and he failed to remember a thing in the morning. He feel no sickness so it couldn't possibly be that.

Then the memory returned.

The waves, crashing around him, creating a deafening roar, and then struggling to breathe, struggling to reach the surface. Then the feeling of panic, followed by exhaustion, followed by something else. Something that he couldn't describe. But he knew that the pain and panic had gone away.

Another thought hit him. He saw a face. A girl. She was beautiful with long silvery hair and eyes that were the same blue as the ocean. The memory began to fade and he concentrated hard to hold on to it. He leapt from the bed, searching desperately for some parchment to draw the face and instantly regretted the action as he was overwhelmed with dizziness and fell to the floor. The crash brought people running and Eric felt himself being lifted back onto the bed. The voices blurred as he fell asleep again but this time he dreamed of the face.

He awoke to a rather annoying flicking of his ears. Bernard had done this since they were children. Eric hated awaking early and one day Bernard learnt the technique of flicking ones ear. Eric quickly learnt that it is impossible to ignore someone when the continuously flick you in the ear. Normally Eric would ignore him as long as he could but on the particular morning he leapt up, scaring his friend and making him fall backwards off the bed. Once again, Eric regretted getting up so fast as he felt the dizziness return. Luckily this time there was someone to catch him. Laughing his friend grabbed him. "Haven't you learnt from last time? You are weaker than you think."

"Yes we all know you're hilarious" Eric replied as he was not in the mood for his friends jokes. "If you want to help me you can bring me some parchment, I have to do a drawing."

"A drawing?" he asked flatly but thankfully he obliged. Eric ignored his friends questions and focused on trying to bring back the image into his head. He drew faster then he even had in his life to try and catch the image from fading. Finally he stopped, satisfied that he had drawn it close enough.

"Ok, you are starting to scare me" his friend said as he strained to see the drawing. "Would you care to fill me in?"

In reply Eric simply held up the parchment. "Very nice" Bernard said, "now why did you rush to draw that?"

"Because she saved me from the storm."

Bernard paused at Eric's words. He decided to humour him. "So this mystery girl just swims around the ocean saving drowning people?"

Eric shrugged "I don't know how but for a few seconds I remember waking up and seeing her face."

Bernard nodded understandingly. "How much sea water did you drink?"

Eric was tired of trying to explain himself, or maybe he knew he was fighting a losing battle. He knew how crazy he sounded. But he was still so sure about her and how he had to find her.

Everything kind of blurred after that. He grew tired and lost count of how many times he was asked "how are you feeling?" He wanted to yell at them "I almost drowned, how do you think I'm feeling?" But he held back. He also held back on mentioning the girl again. Other people in the court would not be as accepting as his best friend and think him insane. Those who were extra spiteful or loyal to his brothers would inform the King, lying and saying that Eric was not in his right mind in the hopes that the King would think him insane and never give him the crown. Eric didn't know if he cared about this or not.

Bernard could see what constantly filled Eric's mind and was not happy about it. He kept reinstating what Eric already knew about "if the King sees you so distracted he will worry and your brothers will use it to your advantage." Eric tended to stop listening at this point. He knew it all but he didn't care.

All he cared about was her.

He wondered if his brothers were happy he was alive. Ezra at least pretended to be. He ran in pretending to be choked up with emotion crying, "take me but not my brother. Curses on you world."

It was a little overdone. "As you can see I'm not dying" Eric tried to tell him but his brother was too deep into his performance. With his hand to his brow in mock pain and continued "I have been a nervous wreck ever since I heard the news. Don't you ever leave again, do you hear me?"

"The whole kingdom can hear you" Eric said truthfully. It was part of his brothers plan, to seem caring and loving which he obviously wasn't. The older brother Edlyn just observed from the side, calculating ways to use this to his advantage. Everything was a competition to these two. Everything was a way to prove their worth to the King.

His mother greeted him with genuine happiness. It was clear to everyone that she loved Eric far more than her other sons. His father's opinion of them changed almost daily. Today, Eric seemed in good graces with him. He was happy to see his youngest son alive and well after such a long absence. "My son" he said warmly as he embraced him. It meant nothing to Eric. He knew that his fathers emotions changed quickly and this time tomorrow he could be an utter disappointment to the man. Still he smiled and joined in the happy family masquerade.

"Promise me that you wont go in search of mystery girl" Bernard said to Eric who nodded half heartedly. "Promise me" he said, louder this time. "Fine" Eric replied, also getting louder. His fingers were crossed.

"Mystery girl?" Eliza asked due to rather rude eavesdropping. "Beat it, this is a conversation for men" Bernard told her and she took great pleasure in ignoring. "But I want to know" she pleaded, pouting in that way girls do to make men do whatever they want. It never worked on Bernard and Eric. They knew her too well. They knew that under her seemingly sweet exterior, she was pure evil. Eliza was in fact the eldest of the royal children but was constantly overlooked. Ruling was a mans job and she served no purpose in the eyes of this.

"I'm not leaving until I know," she threatened and Bernard groaned. They often played this game. When she wanted them to do something she would not leave them alone. This also included loud singing, shouting, non-stop talking and anything she could think of to get them to crack. She always won. All of them stared at each other, waiting for someone to crack.

"Eric thinks that some beautiful woman saved him from drowning and he wont stop talking about it and now he wants to find her even though he's clearly insane" Bernard gushed as he cracked under the pressure.

Eliza gasped excitedly. "Insanity is fun" she gushed "don't do anything embarrassing if I'm not around." And just like that, everything was about her.

"Ill try" Eric told her, rather amused. She began listing all the things he should do now that he was officially insane. Bernard began telling her that she was insane and they began fighting about it as per usual. Eric stopped listening and wondered if he was insane. Surely he could not have made her up.

Regardless, he knew he would search for her.


	4. The Councils Verdict

Ariana meanwhile was not in a state to be found.

For the first few days she swam around the ocean in a kind of stupor due to the overload of information she had encountered. Overnight she had gone from never even seeing a human to having saved one from drowning and her thoughts were constantly racing.

For once she didn't feel sociable. This suited Florence for the first day but found that he was strangely missing her annoying ways by the second. He wondered where to find her and realised that he had never needed to before, she had always just showed up. The few merfolk he bothered to ask gave him peculiar looks and asked, "Why would you want to find her. Aren't you always complaining and wishing that you could have a few days to yourself?" He had no answer for this and swam on.

Finally he checked where he prayed she would never be and swam as close to the surface as he dared. Sure enough, there she was. "Ariana" he called but she was too lost in thought to hear him. "Ariana" he said, louder but still nothing. Knowing this could go all day he swam up and have her a friendly hard hit on the head.

That got her attention but she wasn't happy with him as she nursed her head. "Where have you been? He asked angrily "I didn't see you all of yesterday and now I find you once again, near the surface. The very place I left you before not seeing you for days. Do you ever consider anyone else?"

"Now who talks too much?" she asked, rather amused but it was obvious to him that she was near tears. Before he could enquire they were interrupted.

It wasn't a good kind of interruption. Castilar was the kind of merman you avoided at all times. It was never a good thing when he was happy about something. "You've been summoned," he told Ariana "by the council."

She tried to display no emotion but Florence knew her well enough to know when she was terrified. Neither of them had ever seen the council but their reputation exceeds them. The group consisted of the eldest and most trusted mermaids and they are only called together for enormous problems around the sea. Most merfolk who went into meetings with them never come out.

They swam in silence. Castilar seemed amused by this. He didn't say anything but his smirk said it all Florence reached out and held Ariana's hand in a feeble attempt to comfort her. She squeezed it thankfully even though he knew it wouldn't do anything.

Finally they found themselves at an entrance to a large cave. "You have to wait here," Castilar told Florence who looked like he wasn't going to budge. Ariana squeezed his hand again and let go. Giving him one last smile, she turned and swam after Castilar.

The water seemed to get instantly colder, and darker. Ariana could barley see anything in front of her. Merfolk were luckily blessed with pale silver hair and Castilar's hair gave her a tiny amount of direction.

After followed endless tunnels until finally coming out to see the dreaded council. There was about twenty of them, spread out around the cave. It was hard to tell from the lack of light. Ariana thought she made out her father in the centre but there was no sure way of knowing. She expected that the King would sit in the middle. It didn't matter. She knew that in here he wasn't her father, in here he was nothing but a ruler. A ruler who obviously knew what she had done.

Castilar took his place on the side and it begun.

"Are you aware of why we have summoned you here?" her father asked.

She tried to speak but her voice failed her. She nodded and hoped that they could see.

"Are you aware of the seriousness of your crime?"

Again she nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

He turned away from her and addressed Castilar. "Would you please recount to the council what you witnessed?"

Castilar swam to the centre to speak. "There was a storm as the ship carrying the Prince of Eravonia returned home. A storm that need I mention, took a lot of work to plan so we could slowly get our revenge. Everything was going as planned. The Prince fell overboard and stopped resurfacing. That is, until Ariana saved him and took him to safety. Not only did she break a plan that was organised by the very people in this room, but she also made contact with a human, resulting in the transferring of power. If the humans discover this power they will realise that we were plotting against them and could retaliate. May I reiterate to the council that contact with a human, though it does for a short period making them weaker in the long run it means that his powers will grow and he will begin to notice his new abilities. When he regains his strength he will see this. This is why is was ruled long ago that there is to be no contact between merfolk and humans. If we don't kill them they will grow stronger. This is why I propose the removal of the Prince in question."

The council murmured to each other. Castilar took this as his cue to swim away. He stopped when Carissa coughed. Ariana knew this meant more trouble for her. Castilar was nothing compared to Carissa as everything he did was ordered by her. She had a vendetta against the royal family since they replaced her family on the throne hundreds of years ago. No one knew where she went but on the odd occasion where she was seen, she made an impact. She may as well have been the only member on the council because she controlled most of the members through fear.

Her message seemed to have passed on to Castilar who swam back to the centre. "If I could make a suggestion" he said evilly "I think we could have a way or solving two of our problems at once. The young princess has betrayed her own kind and needs to prove her loyalty. May I suggest that she herself, rectify her mistake. She should be the one to kill the Prince."

Ariana looked up panicked. Once again the council murmured amongst themselves. Most seemed impressed by the idea.

"Can I suggest something else?" Ariana tried to say but the looks they gave her silenced her. It was clear that she was not allowed to speak. So she awaited her fate with crossed fingers, praying for hope.

This did not come. Her father came forward and addressed everyone. "It has been decided. Ariana, through the work of our best charms, shall be given legs. And shall venture on land to kill the Prince."

Carissa coughed again, creating a mixed sense of fear and loathing inside of Ariana. "If I may" Castilar said again "may I make another suggestion?" Ariana wanted to shout at him but knew that it wouldn't help her situation. All she could do was watch as Carissa's plan unfolded.

"Sure, we could just kill the Prince, or we could use the situation to our advantage. It is easy enough to kill humans, after all, touch them for too long and they drop dead right? But what I was thinking, it that we play on his emotions. Humans are so easy to manipulate. What if Ariana's mission was not to kill him but rather get his key to the kingdom which we all know will only be given through one task."

The council collectively gasped, most with disgust at the idea. Some quickly doubted this plan, looking around to see the opinions of fellow members. The look Carissa gave them made them turn back and nod in agreement. Arians eyes widened in panic as she swam forward to defend herself.

Before she could even open her mouth one of the council raised their hands and a mighty surge of water knocked her back.

The distinct sound of Carissa's laugh could be heard as Ariana lost conciseness.

She knew that her trouble was only just beginning.


	5. Sights and Sounds of Humans

Ariana awoke to an odd sensation. She dared not open her eyes as she feared what she would see.

She felt peculiar all over and knew what it must mean. Opening her eyes, she looked down to see her legs.

Despite the situation she was rather fascinated by them. She found them easy to move, much like her tail only now there were two. She happily waved them around and wiggled the little things on the end of them. Suddenly she thought of trying to walk. It had always fascinated her but now she was rather scared to try. Still, she pushed up with her arms and willed her legs to go.

She fell on her face. But being the stubborn creature she was, she tried again, and again, and again until she stood. The feeling on sand was much different now. This kind was dry and felt much better then the wet kind. It created a sort of tickling sensation and she was amused by it. But then the wish to walk returned and she tried to take a step. She balanced herself on a large rock as she wobbled dangerously and nearly ended up back on the sand. She took another and found herself getting stronger. After a few more, she let go of the rock and found herself walking. She was delighted of course but wished for another challenge. She walked progressively faster until she speed down the beach. 'This must be the thing they called running' she thought to herself as she tried to go faster. Once again, her face was in the sand.

She was brought out of her happiness when she noticed another presence of the beach. Her breathe caught in her throat as she turned but let it out in relief when she saw Florence. "Having fun?" he asked, rather amused at having witnessed her many failed attempts. She considered her answer. He gave her no chance to respond. "Well you shouldn't be" he continued "need I remind you why you are here?"

That well and truly brought her out of her happiness as she sunk down to the sand again as the full extent of her mission hit her.

"I can't do it" she said bluntly. "How can I make someone fall in love with me when I can't even touch him?"

"How can you do it when you cant even walk" Florence said, not helpfully at all. The look she gave him informed him of this and he gave her an apologetic look.

"Are you here to be helpful or are you just going to insult my walking."

This made him remember why he was here and he pushed a crate towards her. "Remember when we found this on a sunken ship?" he said as she struggled to open it "well I told you it would come in handy, you're going to need clothes to blend in." She tried her best but the humans seemed clever in this aspect of their inventions and she could not open it. "Try a rock" Florence offered and threw a sharp one from the ground near him. She hacked at the crate until she had a big enough gap to pull the garments through. "See I am helpful" he said as she struggled to figure out how to work the clothes. He shrugged at her confused look. "I think it's backwards" he commented on her feeble attempt. While she changed he filled her in on what she had missed. "They are not going to be patient you know. And to make sure you work fast they've taken a few precautions. They have been setting up giant storms for the few days you were unconscious."

"Days" Ariana asked in surprise.

"Days" he confirmed. "But as I was saying, There has been giant storms with ships sinking all over the place. People are dying Ariana. Also, you are aware of what happens when a mermaid doesn't have her tail? You are going to get weak and exhausted. You may also see some scales emerging which will cause you agony. Try to keep those covered. You will not blend in so well with those. And the main thing, the one thing you must remember, do not touch humans! You want the Prince's key, you do not want him dead. Apparently they don't die as quick as we used to think. After all you held him arm for quite a while to get him back to shore and he's not dead yet. With a lot of rest they can recover. Can you remember all this?"

She shook her head slowly with wide eyes as she tried to take in all this information. "Just do your best" he concluded "and work on your walking."

She wrapped the remaining clothes in a bundle and turned for one last look at her friend. "No hugs" he told her, knowing what she was like "you'll get your nice new clothes wet. I'll just wish you luck and laugh as you try and walk away."

She was glad, hugging him would have resulting in her breaking down and she needed to be strong. "Good luck" he said and gave her a special smile. She smiled back and turned towards the kingdom.

The moments was ruined when she tripped another time.

By the time she reached the gate she considered herself to be rather skilled at walking. She barley even wobbled anymore. But as she approached the gate she saw her next challenge. This device was made to detect merfolk but apparently it would only work if a large amount entered. Taking a deep breath, she crossed it and paused as she waited for something to happen. Nothing did. She took a small step and paused again, fully ensuring that nothing would happen. She then confidently travelled on.

She soon found herself in the village and forgot about her mission in the excitement that it brought her. Humans who were much more skilled than her at walking, rushed past at incredible paces as they went about their business. She was swept up in the colour and noise that poured from the people. She happily ran round observing all the things at stalls and the people behind them. Florence had included some coins in her bundle but she didn't know what any of them meant. If she had her way she could easily buy something from every stall, despite not knowing what any of them were.

Before she knew it, the day was ending. Her legs were exhausted and the things on the end were cut up and bleeding quickly. She didn't care, she was still thoroughly enjoying herself.

Not looking where she was going she happily raced on and found herself running into none other then the Prince. Her legs weren't used to this sort of thing and she found herself on the ground again. Both apologising he bent down to help her up. Upon seeing her face he almost dropped her.

"It's you!" he said in amazement. "Excuse me?" she asked curiously. Surely he could not remember her, he was barley awake. "You saved me! About a week ago when I was drowning."

Obviously he could remember. All the horrible images of what humans would do upon the knowledge of her true self flooded into her mind. Luckily, she had always had a dark talent for lying.

Pretending to be amused by his words she said, "So you think it to be plausible that I swim around in the middle of the ocean saving men like yourself?"

Pausing, he realised how the story sounded. But then her words made him hesitate. "I never mentioned the ocean. What makes you think it was from there that I was saved?"

Internally cursing herself, she quickly covered herself by saying, "where else would people drown?"

He looked disappointed at her logic but didn't seem convinced. She had no idea what to do next. She knew her task but didn't know how to go about it. Torn between running and staying she remained frozen on the spot.

"Well I'm sorry for the mistake" he said. She nodded as a sign of her acceptance of his apology. She realised he was still holding her hands from helping her up and quickly yanked them from his grasp. It didn't suit her to have him dead. Both were trying to think of what to say next when he noticed her bloody footprints. "Are you aware your feet are bleeding?" he asked.

She whispered to herself "feet, so that's the word."

"Sorry?" he asked and she quickly tried to think of how to cover up what she had said. "Yes I am perfectly aware" was the only thing she could think of to say.

"Did you lose your shoes or something?" he asked. She had no idea what he was talking about and quickly tried to think of what these shoes could be. "Yes" she guessed, hoping that it was an acceptable answer. "Well we can't have that" he said "it is my duty as a Prince of this Kingdom to equip you with new ones."

She raised an eyebrow in question. "Its in the oaths" he explained. "They ask do you swear to protect the Kingdom to your death, I say I do. They say do you swear to buy new shoes for anyone in the Kingdom if they have none, I say I do."

"I get the picture," she laughed. "Well then why don't you buy some for that man?" she said as she indicated to a man sitting on the side of the street. He looked rather worse for the wear and not having shoes was probably a regular occurrence.

Eric shrugged and turned to the man. "On my oaths as a Prince I am required to equip you with new shoes." The man simply shrugged as it seemed he would do anything for new shoes.

Eric offered Ariana his arm but she opted to skip ahead, rather exited about learning what these shoes things are.

The excitement only grew when they reached the store. She saw shelves and shelves of brightly coloured things to decorate feet and she ran around happily trying on different kinds. The shopkeeper was rather amused by the whole situation and enjoyed showing her the more outrageous articles and seeing her happily prance around in them. Eric was also amused, especially at all the times she stumbled. She glared at him every time he dared laugh which quickly silenced him.

The man from the streets opted for the most expensive pair of shoes he could find and went on his merry way. Ariana was so excited that she barley noticed.

Eric found a pair with the highest heels and challenged her "I'll bet you cant take twenty steps in these."

This annoyed her slightly. "Are you implying that you think I do not have the basic skill of walking?"

"Well you stumble a lot. And when we met you did run into me. And you have pretty cut up feet. And…"

"I get it" she interrupted and snatched the shoes from his grasp. She stumbled as soon as she stood up in them and fell back down. "My time starts now" she said in reply to his laughter. One step, two steps. With every one she grew slightly more confident and faster. Seventeen, eighteen, just as she approached the end one small stumble sent her falling. He was there to catch her and everything seemed to stop when she looked into his eyes. They were frozen for a moment, the shopkeeper stood very awkwardly on the side, not wishing to interrupt. Realising he was touching her, Ariana quickly leapt back. "It's your turn now" she said as she handed him the shoes.

"There is no way" he told her.

"I did it!" she exclaimed "so will you admit that I'm better than you or try?"

She didn't think he would but he wore them. He only made seven steps. She instantly felt a lot better about her walking abilities.

Finally she knew that had to settle on something more practical and allowed the shopkeeper to choose for her. Both Eric and Ariana were rather disappointed at how little time it took as she had to be on her way.

"I guess Id better be going" she said uncomfortably and he stopped her. "Where are you staying?" he asked, stalling.

"Where the wind takes me" she joked.

"I could…" he began but she cut him off.

"You've done enough. Now I don't need you helping me every step I take." She really didn't, she now considered herself quite an expert at walking.

"Well can I see you tomorrow?" he asked hopefully. She considered, really not knowing the answer. After a while she thought she had better answer. "We'll let fate decide" she finally said and walked off, with great skill might I add.


	6. Ignoring the Call

Ariana's next task was finding a place to stay. She asked a friendly looking woman who pointed her in the way of a nearby building. It seemed clean and safe enough. She wasn't sure of what humans housing looked like but it met her unknowing standards. A few of the men at the bar gave her looks that she didn't quite approve of but they seemed harmless enough.

The man behind the bar seemed to be in charge so she approached him.

"I need a place to stay" she told him.

"How long for?" he asked without looking up from what he was doing.

"Indefinitely" she replied.

Finally he looked up "you're not my regular type of clientele" he commented upon seeing her appearance. She ignored this and pulled out the money Florence had given her.

"How much do you need?" His eyes widened at the money but tried to stay calm. "I'm not sure that will quite cover it. But after all, im a kind man, I like to help out people out. All of that should cover about a week and…"

"Dale!" some woman yelled, interrupting his lies. She quickly came over and began threatening to hit him with her frying pan saying, "how dare you try and cheat this poor young lady out of a vast amount of money. Honestly, it worries me the kind of man that you have become. My mother always said 'Charlene, there are many types of bad men in this world but if you marry a cheat, you will be cursed to a miserable life' and I didn't listen." All the while Dale was rolling his eyes at Ariana and mocking his wife when she wasn't looking. She continued on her rant about his immaturity and laziness until Ariana assumed Charlene had long since forgotten what her rant was originally about. Finally she turned back to Ariana and said "I am sorry for my idiotic husbands behavior. Now lets sort out a decent deal for you."

Ariana still wondered if she had been cheated, Dale still had a strange look in his eye. Charlene gave her a key saying "your room will be up the stairs and second to the left. Breakfast is served at seven and no later then eight. There are three meals a day available but the other times are flexible."

The other rules continued to be listed and Ariana struggled to remember them all. Finally she was released and she wandered towards the stairs. She had never seen stairs before and thought them rather peculiar. It took her a long time to get up them but finally she made it to her room. She soon decided on everything's purpose. The large comfy thing must be for sleeping on. It was a lot comfier then a rock. The big square with smaller squares that moved must be for storing things so she shoved the few possessions she had in them. Then she had nothing else to do. She amused herself trying to make the candle work. After learning the hard way that the flame was rather hot, she settled back into boredom.

She decided to brave the stairs again and explore downstairs. Charlene saw her coming and yelled to the men "now the thing coming down the stairs is what we call a young lady. You all treat her right of be thrown out." They all groaned and averted their eyes.

"It's not our fault" one of the told Charlene "we're just so unused to seeing a lady about these parts. All we normally get is you." She gave him a hard whack on the head and 'accidentally' knocked his ale down his front.

The others roared with laughter and she yelled "watch it or you'll et the same treatment." Ariana loved the way she controlled the men. She couldn't understand why they didn't consider her a lady, Ariana thought she was quite pretty. Well she was rather on the large size with a few grey hairs but there was still something about her that Ariana admired.

The door opened and a man came in that Ariana recognised. She realised it was the scruffy man from earlier in the day that she had made Eric buy shoes for.

"Charlene" he called out "I require your finest Meade"

She glared at him "have you got the money Clay?" He proudly produced a few silver coins which she quickly grabbed and gave him a mug. Ariana looked him up and down and was not happy that he was not wearing his shoes. After all Eric had done for him she was rather angry that he seemed to have sold them. She stormed up, ready for a full rant. "Missing something?" she said as she approached him. "I know you from somewhere" he said, ignoring her question.

"Well let me refresh your memory. I helped you get new shoes that you appear to be missing."

He reached down beside his stool and pulled up the shoes. "Happy" he asked "and I cant help but notice that you're not wearing yours either."

That got her as she realised she had taken them off long ago. "So what makes you so high and mighty are?" he asked, delighted at the turn of events "where are you hiding yours?"

She hesitated before answering. "You're going to think I'm crazy" she told him and gave her look which made it clear that he already thought her beyond crazy. "I like having bare feet" she explained "because I like experiencing the different types of ground. For instant, this wooden one right here, is kind of new to me and I just enjoy feeling it."

"Yeah you're right" he said "I think you're even more crazy."

After a few mouthfuls of Meade he asked her "so you really think I sold my shoes?" She guilty nodded. "Because I didn't" he informed her "I gambled them." She pretended to understand by nodding her head in an agreeing fashion, hoping that wasn't something humans were expected to know.

He chuckled "you don't have a clue do you?"

She shook her head, suddenly engrossed in this gambling thing.

"Come with me," he said with a delightfully wicked smile of mischief on his face.

The next she knew, it was morning and her head was aching in pain. Everything was a blur as she searched through her brain, trying to remember where she was and how she got there. The legs were a clue. "Now it I could only remember how to use them," she muttered to herself as she attempted to get out of bed. She remembered being nervous when Clay had taken into a darker part of town. It didn't have the bright innocence of town. Every few steps they ran into another drunk stumbling along. Of course Ariana didn't know the term 'drunk' back then and didn't know what to think. She tried to hide her fear as she saw that Clay was so relaxed but ever so subtly walked behind him slightly so it someone did see fit to attack, he would go first.

Being attacked seemed less likely as they walked along. Everyone seemed to know Clay and greeted him happily or at least with a polite nod.

"I'm their king," he said in response to her confused look.

She paused "really?" He just laughed at how easy he could fool her.

Eventually they reached their destination. In this case, it appeared to be a run down house that creaked with every step Ariana took. A large man greeted them that looked like he could easily snap bones.

"Password?" he asked in a bored tone. He perked up however when he saw Ariana. It was not a regular occurrence for a woman like her to be in a place like this.

Then her memories started to blur. Rolling dice mixed with far too much of that bitter liquid spilled through her thoughts as she tried to rise

The ringing rose when Charlene banged the door open and bustled in, practically pulling Ariana out of bed saying "you're sleeping the day away. Goodness me you smell like a brewery. You should have known better to be around a man like Clay. I've drawn you a bath so you can attempt to get rid of some of the smell."

All of these words ran right through Ariana as she prayed that the banging would cease. They did, when she saw the water. She practically leapt in, waiting for the relief feeling that water always brought. It didn't come as she hoped. Over the first day amongst humans, not only had she gained rather cut feet but she had also had to live with a burning sensation all over her skin. She was horrified to find small scales appearing on her arm. At least they were high up so her dress sleeves covered them. This morning she found more on her legs. She knew that it must be the absence of salt in the water that prevented the relief. Or maybe it was the legs. Or both.

Still, she found peace in the stillness of the water and quickly fell asleep again.

Who knows how long she slept for but it must have been long enough. When she awoke the scales had paled and were a lot less visible than before.

This being excuse enough, she hurriedly dressed in anticipation for exploring the city once again. There were a lot more guards then the day before but she ignored them and all the strange looks they gave her. Once again she was quickly swept up in the wonder of a human town. Eventually she bumped into Eric, but it was obvious that there was nothing accidental about it.

"I didn't trust destiny," he admitted "so I asked a few guards to keep a look out."

Ariana observed what he considered to be a 'few' guards as she saw over half of the squares population consisting of guards. "I see the shoes are going well" he commented as Ariana was eternally grateful that he had caught her at a time she was wearing them. The last thing she wanted to do was appear grateful. But surely that didn't matter; after all she knew that she could never seduce a prince to help destroy his kingdom. The best thing to do would be to excuse herself and, well. She had no where else to go. Nor did she have any where else she wanted to go.

So instead she merely looked at her shoes and mumbled her agreement. "Now if only we could fix your clothes" he decided.

This got her rather upset. "What's wrong with the way I dress?"

"Nothing of course" he said quickly, trying to calm her. "Only your dress makes you blend into the crowd far too much. You deserve to stand out."

Maybe he was right. Her dress was very plain but it was all she could muster while being stranded on a beach. Still he didn't know that so she allowed him to lead her to a dress shop.

"This is a rather abandoned area," she said as she noticed the people slowly dwindling away.

"That would be due to Sibra. She's the town seamstress and you don't want to get on her bad side."

Instantly images of malicious old hags sprung to Ariana's mind and she walked a little slower in the hopes that he would change his mind.

Eventually they arrived and oddly Ariana felt comfortable in the musty smell of cloth. "Sibra" Eric called and received enraged mumbling from a side room. Ariana found herself stepping behind Eric slightly for protection and scolded herself for being such a damsel in distress. He found this rather amusing but said nothing.

Finally Sibra came out. She walked slowly, undoubtedly from age. Ariana got a sense that she had been beautiful once but now age had taken her beauty. She relied on the cane and still had a constant crooked figure. Her eyes passed over Eric and went straight to Ariana. Her glare made Ariana wont to sprint.

"This one needs new clothes" Eric said as he gently tried to force her forward. She remained solitary.

"What business sire, do you have buying dresses for young ladies?" She questioned, her glare passed onto him. It occurred to Ariana how this must look and she and Eric quickly stepped away from each other while mumbling about royal duty and other lies. Sibra seemed to accept this and hobbled up with a measuring tape. "You suit blue," Sibra informed her as she measured. Eric was beginning to fidget which clearly annoyed Sibra. She threw some thread at him "go amuse yourself over there." His eyes lit up at the prospect of laving this boring event and happily moved to another area.

Ariana however was transfixed with watched the woman work. Seeing her hands move so quickly over the material entranced her. Sibra was muttering to herself things like "I'll have to start from scratch. Too bloody small for anything I have already have."

It took longer than expected and Eric had to leave. Ariana opted to stay and Eric was rather shocked at her change in views of Sibra.

Within no time at all what was once long basic strips of material had transformed into a beautiful gown.

"I want to learn how to do that," Ariana said as Sibra presented her with the dress.

She looked at the young girls hands "you haven't worked a day in your life. Needles and pins will quickly cut up those hands."

"I don't mind" Ariana said quickly. "It can't hurt to try can it?"

The woman scoffed. "Be back here tomorrow. Early. I can't stand those lazy idiots who sleep all day." Ariana averted her eyes, hoping the woman couldn't read thoughts. "And if I'm in a good mood, I may teach you."

Ariana happily ran back to the inn, barley stopping when Clay called to her. "Same as last night?" he asked cheekily. "I can't," she said as she headed upstairs "I have to sleep." Rather then bother to explain to him she quickly bounded into bed and thanked that the long run back had tired her out.

This happiness was far more than simply the idea of learning a new skill. The true happiness came from how much she found herself loving the human world. After all, if her plan failed, she would be staying there for a rather long time.

She underestimated the strong call of the sea.

But for now she rested, unaware of the pain to come.


	7. The Things People Do for Love

Eric was late again for her training. Bernard looked at the clock again and back to the trainers. "I'm sure he'll be here in no time at all. You should see him, he's always raving about how much fun this is." The trainers glared at him, all sporting the same menacing glare. "Ok then" Bernard said as he gave up on trying to butter them up.

Finally Eric ran in, out of breath and puffing. The trainers didn't acknowledge this and threw him a sword. "Warm up with the runt" one said as he jerked his head at Bernard.

"Runt?" he questioned, feeling very hurt. But he quickly turned to the task at hand. "So what do you say?" Bernard said as he prepared to fight, "will today be the day that I finally beat you?"

Eric puffed as he drew his sword. "If it is, it's only because I am exhausted."

"Not when I tell the story."

Bernard quickly lunged forward, hoping to take his friend by surprise but Eric had been waiting for this and blocked easily. He tried again but still got the same blocking response.

"So where have you been?" Bernard asked, hoping to distract him. Before Eric had time to answer, Bernard was attacking again. Still Eric was far too skilled.

"Out" he simply said the other tried to recover himself.

"I've heard rumours," Bernard said before once again lunging forward. The talking had to cease as they went into hard combat. No words could be heard over the clanking of swords and both men were to busy concentrating to think of what else to say. This play went on for quite a while until a strong blow from Eric sent Bernard back and they allowed each other a few minutes breathing time.

"The people seem rather smitten with the idea of you and this silver haired girl that you've been seen with. The people were already in love with you but the idea that you could fall in love with one of them makes you so much more relatable. Good tactic my friend."

"I barley know her" Eric said "and why does it matter to the people who I marry."

"I never said marry. You came up with that all on your own. But the people think of you as an actual human being. Unlike your brothers who are these distant creatures. Your father is supposed to listen to the opinion of his people in choosing his heir and the people are definitely in your favour at the moment."

Eric sighed "not everything is a political trick Bernard."

Bernard faked a look of mock shock. "Are you sure?" he asked.

It seemed that warm up time was over as Eric was summoned away.

"Fine" Bernard said to himself. "I'll just have to get my information from a different source."

So the next day he made it his mission to find the girl. Finally asking around town had it's benefits and someone told him where she was staying. The owner mumbled something about her rising at some god-forsaken hour to run off and see Sibra. He then went back to sleep. This caused a halt in Bernard's search. He feared approaching Sibra. Still, it was for the good of his friend, which would ultimately be for the good of Bernard himself.

He knew instantly who the girl was when he entered. She matched the description perfectly. Not only with the silver hair and bright blue eyes, but she was strikingly beautiful.

"Sibra has just gone out for new thread," she told him.

"Actually" he said as he strode in "I'm here to see you."

She looked confused. "I'm a friend of Eric's and was just wondering why you think that it is acceptable to steal my friend for the past two days so that he has been late for every other appointment."

She still looked confused. "I-" she began to say but he cut her off. "Now I know the presence of a royal can excite people and once you've been inside the royal palace you never want to leave-"

"I've never been inside the palace," she said, interrupting him this time.

"Never been inside the palace!" he said with fake surprise. "Well my dear it must be my duty to show you where my friend has obviously lacked hospitality."

"If I'm not back when Sibra returns-" she said looking concerned. "Well you know how she can be."

He shivered at the thought. "Pretend you died" he suggested. She raised an eyebrow and he accepted that his suggestion was a bad one. They had no more planning time as Sibra returned early and narrowed her eyes upon seeing Bernard.

"Now Miss Sibra? Mam? Your scariness?" Bernard said as he attempted to find the right phrase and Ariana held back laughter. "I'm afraid that I must borrow this young lady-"

"Ariana" she whispered.

"Ariana" he quickly recovered his lie "for official royal courtly business that must be taken care of urgently and cannot wait another second so we must be gone immediately. Thank you." And without waiting for her reply he grabbed Ariana's arm and ran off.

"You do realise the conclusions that she'll be jumping too?" Ariana asked as they walked off.

"What's she going to do? Hex me?" he stopped, suddenly afraid. "She can't can she?"

Ariana gave him and unsure look and walked on.

"Today is grading day so at least you'll have some entertainment" he informed her as they reached the palace." In response to her puzzled look he explained. "Grading day is the day where the King observes everything his sons have been learning since the last grading day. He sees them fight each other and learns of any quests or any other interesting things they may have done."

He was beginning to grow bored of her confused stare. Not wishing to explain politics to her he quickly pressed on.

"We even have front row seats" he said happily as they reached the arena. They arrived just in the middle of Eric fighting Edlyn.

"Edlyn is easily the best fighter of all the of them" Bernard whispered to her. This was made obvious as Eric fought as hard as he could but was still taking blows. Someone called for a breather and they were allowed a few minutes break. "Go Eric!" Bernard said, standing up and waving to get his friends attention. Eric stopped to wave back and almost did a double take when he saw Ariana there as well. The fight was called back and Bernard sat back, happily waiting for his plan to unfold.

Sure enough, when they began again, Eric fought harder then Bernard had seen in a long time. Edlyn was clearly weakening fast. "The things men do to impress woman" he mumbled to himself as he watched Edlyn go down and become to exhausted to get back up.

The crowd roared with delight as their favourite was champion. Ezra mouth fell open at how quickly and easily Eric had defeated him. Edlyn refused his brothers help with getting up and walked off, humiliated.

The King looked surprised. Bernard couldn't work out if this was a good surprised or a bad one but either way, at least the King was seeing a different side of Eric. Bernard hoped that the new side the King was seeing would be one of leadership.

As soon as the fight was over Eric did not acknowledge the crowd as his brothers would have to rub in his victory. Nor did he run up to his brothers and tease the over their failure. He was over to the stands in a second and it certainly wasn't to see Bernard.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her, surprised, but happy.

"Your friend kidnapped me," she told him.

"I prefer forcefully took someone who wanted to come anyway" he interjected. "Are you all done now? This one needs a tour."

Eric looked at himself. "Give me a second to clean myself up and I'll be right back."

It took more than a second and Bernard quickly grew bored. "We'll start without him. Shall we go?"

So the tour began. Ariana had the same look of wonder in each elaborate room she entered which amused both men every time. All the while, Bernard spoke highly of his friend in every possible manner before he finally graced them with his presence. Bernard tried to hide his look of amusement over how much effort his friend had obviously gone to. Eventually Bernard realised that he must be ruining the mood slightly and excused himself to go "make up excuses to excuse myself in the future."

The previous looks of adoration all paled in comparison to her look when she entered the music room. Merfolk have always loved music but have never been exposed to instruments. She bounded around the room, demanding an explanation of what each instrument was and a demonstration. He couldn't play most of them but she still grew excited by his attempts. The piano was easily her favourite as she bounced up to it and tenderly stroked the keys. Here was an instrument he could play and at her demand played Bach's Arioso. She watched transfixed and found that she was fighting back tears.

"Are you crying," he asked.

"No my eyes are leaking. There's dust in them."

He grew secretive over lunch and asked Bernard to entertain her as he had to do something.

"Trust me," he said as he left.

She looked worried. "I don't think I do," she said.

The time had finally come for Eliza to meet Ariana and Eliza thoroughly enjoyed pulling out the big sister act that she had always wanted to do but had never received the chance. She stood as tall as she could, which admittedly was rather high to appear slightly more intimidating. Ariana feared the cascade of questions that she sensed were coming.

"It is my duty" she began "to ensure that anyone spending time with my little brother is worthy and not some strange sea dweller."

This made Ariana do a double take. "Excuse me" as she panicked at the thought that she knew.

"Well apparently you match the description of his mystery girl who saved him from drowning."

Ariana breathed out in relief. "Well as I explained to him, I don't often swim around the ocean saving drowning Princes. Unless it's a very special occasion. I don't count his drowning as one."

Bernard tried to stifle his laughter as he waited for Eliza's reaction. She thought about this and eventually smiled and let out a little laugh. "I like you" she finally decided.

Eric came back at this point. "Follow me," he told Ariana which naturally meant for Eliza and Bernard to sneak along behind. When they got deeper into the castle and obviously to their destination he told her "close your eyes."

She hated surprises but knew if she didn't do it then someone else would try and cover them for her and that person could die. So unwillingly she closed them and let him lead her in.

"You can open them now."

She gasped as she found herself in a large hall with what appeared to be all of the instruments from the music room and more. Each instrument was accompanied by a musician with plenty of sheet music. "I don't think that I did many of theses instruments justice," he explained. "So I asked around so you can have a decent listen to them.

She ignored her common sense and hugged him. She still took special care to make sure that she wasn't directly touching him and pulled away quickly. Eliza and Bernard were exchanging little smirks on the side which Eric and Ariana ignored.

So for one of the best afternoons she could remember, Ariana experienced a wider range of music then she had experienced in her whole life. She found herself beginning to doubt certain aspects of human life. From all she had seen they were kinder than most merfolk, excluding Florence. They were also nt as stupid as merfolk made out. After all they had created all these instruments whereas merfolk were restricted to their voices. Humans had these too obviously but they had such a wider range. Where merfolk sang with the same beautiful, clear tone, human's voices had so many different aspects while still sounding amazing.

Eric played last. His fingers danced over the keys as he played a beautiful melody. She couldn't take her eyes away. Never before had she felt so happy and safe. Upon realising this, these feeling were instantly replaced with that of fear and dread.

She was in love with a human.

The second he finished she quickly rose. "That was so beautiful but I have to get back now. Charlene has a strict curfew at the inn and it's raining and I just have to go now."

She knew that she was being horribly rude but she had to get out of there. Running as fast as she could, she made it out of the castle. It was here she realised that she didn't know the way and aimlessly searched for a long time as she tried to find her way back.

Finally a familiar building gave her a sign of direction and she made her way back.

Her next problem was that Eric was waiting for her. He didn't have the problem of getting lost like she did. Despite already being sopping wet, she considered running off. Instead she hovered, unsure of her next move. Braving the rain, he ran out to see her. "What's wrong?" he asked "why did you just run off?" Excuses ran through her mind but nothing was even half way decent. "I have literally tried everything I can think of but it's pretty obvious that you are not interested. Or it could be to do with whatever you're not to subtly hiding. But I ignored t because I wanted to be around you. But I guess you don't even want to do that anymore."

"I-" she began as she tried to think of the words. "Maybe we should get out of the rain and this discuss this."

"No I'll lose my nerve," he said, trying to stay angry. "I'm just sick of the secrets and I think it's time you decide what it is you want because-"

She didn't let him finish. Ignoring the pelting rain and the blistering wind, she kissed him. Catching herself early, Ariana quickly pulled away. He had clearly lost his train of thought and didn't know what to say.

"Are you feeling ok?" she asked quickly, scanning for signs of weakness. He shrugged, very confused. He seemed absolutely fine. Ariana stood back, puzzled. Then she looked around her, at the rain. 'Could the water be saving him?' she thought. Thinking back, it was the only logical explanation to how he survived her rescue. What if water could protect him? She stopped thinking and took advantage of the rain, kissing him again. He didn't seem to mind and kissed her back, just as passionately.

Of course they lost track of time. Charlene hadn't as she stood awkwardly on the side, trying to find the right moment to intervene. "I'm sorry to interrupt" she finally called "but you're both going to catch your death of cold." They didn't look like they cared but she was scary when disobeyed so reluctantly they headed inside. It was there they realised how long they had been out there as they saw how saturated the other was and realised that it must be mutual. Charlene fussed around them ordering Ariana to go up and change and wondering what she was going to do about Eric. She yelled for Dale who finally emerged, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and complaining over the late hour. "Get a fire going," she yelled at him "Or get the Prince some clothes."

Dale didn't know what to do. Quickly deciding, he bowed and said "I'm so sorry your highness but I regret that you would not fit my clothes." Charlene sighed and turned to Clay who all the while had been watching the scene fold out with great amusement.

"I'll see what I can rustle up" he said "but I can't guarantee that it won't be gin soaked."

While Eric was drying himself by the fire Dale approached him. "I'm not sure what the situation is with Ariana and her Father but he's definitely not here so I think the task falls to me on making sure that your intentions are good. I've grown rather fond of the girl actually." This really surprised Dale as he realised that he was speaking the truth. He was used to serving drunken fools who would be horrifically rude and, with the exception of Clay, be gone the next morning. For the past days Ariana had always made him smile as she came bounding down the stairs. Her manners were a refreshing shock for him and both he and Charlene had expressed their wish to each other that she stay longer. Not that they would say this to her face. Both liked to keep up an image of not liking anyone.

"It makes it so much sadder when they leave" Charlene would say.

"It gets all disgusting and emotional," Dale would say.

But despite past claims, Dale found he was playing the fatherly figure for Ariana and wondering why he had to do this to a Prince who could easily have him beheaded.

Eric didn't seem to mind but was rather amused instead. "I assure you sir that my intentions are noble" he said.

Clay ran back in but stopped disappointedly when he saw them talking. "Did you start the grilling without me" he whined but quickly snapped into action. Drawing himself up to his full height, which was not very tall and sauntered up to Eric. "Official unofficial brother, reporting for duty" he announced. "I have not known Ariana long but in the brief period we have been friends I have taught her some very important life skills and protected her from countless dangers. Now the current danger is you." Clay tried to look intimidating but the fact that he barley reached Eric's shoulders threw off his element of fear.

It didn't matter that the life lessons he had taught her were gambling and how to remain upright when drunk. He still thought he had the right to interrogate anyone who dared think they could take his precious official unofficial sister away.

"Well then I guess I should tell you both that I too, in the short space of a few days have gained strong feelings for Ariana and also never want to see her hurt. I promise to never do anything that would cause her harm and if I go back on this promise I give you permission to rearrange my face."

Clay seemed happy with this arrangement. The thought of punching a Prince excited him. The thought of punching any one excited him. He had problems.

"I'm still not convinced" Dale decided. "How do I know that this whole thing isn't just some silly rouse so that you can be King?"

Eric was shocked. "Why would I do something like that?"

"Your brothers have done worse."

"Well that's my brothers, not me. And I would never do something like that to anyone, least of all someone I love-"

He stopped as he realised what he said. Clay was trying his best not to burst out laughing at the awkwardness of the conversation. "Well I guess I'm convinced. Are you Ariana?"

Eric slowly turned to see her at the top of the staircase. "Just to confirm" Clay said to her "you can hear everything we say from up there cant you?"

"Sure can," she said, keeping the same shocked expression the whole time.

Dale grabbed Clay's arm. "Come help me with something upstairs." It took some dragging to get Clay away. "You two get warm by the fireplace."

Eric was internally punching himself for proclaiming his love like that. Now she'll get scared off and he would hate himself forever. Cautiously she walked forward as both tried to figure out what to say.

He decided that a change of subject would be the way to approach her. "How about I ask you something about yourself and you answer the best you can without giving anything about your precious secret?" Hesitantly she agreed and he thought of what to ask. It had to be something not too personal or she would once again get scared off.

"Tell me about your family" he finally decided.

"Well I have a really big one. I lose track of my siblings but most of them are only half siblings anyway. My father gets bored quickly. I am the youngest for now but you never know with him. Don't ask who my mother is, I couldn't tell you. Because I honestly don't know. I never thought to ask. I kind of raised myself with the help of some older siblings."

"So I guess you don't like your Father?"

"Hate is a better word" she said bluntly. "I have Florence, who is like a father, brother and friend. Except he says he can't stand me. He lies, I think."

And so they talked all night. She told him as much as she dared and felt a lot better without the lies. Occasionally she would have to leave him with no answer at all but these times were rare. Eventually she figured she would answer him with her eyes closed, just to give them a break. Charlene's footsteps awoke her as she tried to silently tiptoe around them.

"Good you're up" she said, disregarding all attempt at silence.

"When did that happen?" Ariana said, rubbing her eyes.

Eric stretched "I lost track. You stopped replying and I let you sleep."

Charlene was quickly tugging Ariana up. "Well since you're awake you should go get some actually sleep in actual bed. You too Sire, I prepared a room for you. And if there is anything sneaky going on, remember, the floors creak, and I have a frying pan."


	8. Everything He Lost

The strange man stopped telling his story. "You children should be off as well. It's really late. The story end there. They all lived happily ever after; there was world peace and all that rubbish."

The children clearly didn't want to go. "Can we come back tomorrow?"

"No" he barked. They all gave him the cutest puppy dog eyes they could.

"Bring meade," he barked again and they happily ran off.

He wondered what he was going to do with the rest of his night. Sleep never came after a trip down memory lane. He needed that meade now.

Stumbling back into his cabin he reached for his only thing of value. The moonlight caught on the blue jewel of the necklace as he wept over it. It hadn't been worn since that day. It still had the large crack it in, gained from when she had been hurled across the room. There was still dried up blood caught in the crack. No matter how much he worked at it, that blood would never move.

If only the story truly ended there. Now he hoped the children would not return, even with the meade.

Innocence is a fickle thing.


	9. Entry of Sorcery

They did return, with no meade. He had a right mind to kick them out. But he didn't have the strength anymore.

"So get on with the story," Jonathon demanded, rather rudely. "What happened the next day?"

"Next day? Try that same night. Ariana went up to her room so deep n thought, that she barley noticed the stranger waiting for her.

A persons natural instinct when in danger is to defend themselves but with this woman, Ariana knew she would never stand a chance. She was wearing black leather but didn't have a weapon hidden anywhere. She didn't appear to need one.

"A sorceress," Ariana muttered as she realised exactly who her foe was.

The woman smiled but there was no happiness present in it. If there was, it wasn't the type of happiness that was going to work out well for Ariana.

"A mermaid" she commented "Aren't you a little far from home?"

Ariana quickly came to her senses and looked for a weapon.

"Really?" she asked. "You do realise that the second you grab anything half decent I can remove it in a the blink of an eye. Try and touch me and I will remove your hands."

Reluctantly Ariana put her hands behind her back to show that she would be no trouble. Her best tactic was to play along until she knew why the sorceress was here.

"I've been watching you," she announced. "The name is Valida and I am rather intrigued in your problem."

"Problem?"

"The fact that you're in love with a human. Don't bother to deny it"

Ariana didn't bother. "How much do you know?"

"Absolutely everything. From you saving him from drowning to you washing up on shore to right now. And I want to help you."

It took all the strength Ariana had to not break out into laughter. "The only beings that merfolk hate slightly as much as humans are sorcerers. Sorcerers hate us even more. Your kind never helps anyone unless there is something in it for them. So what is it?"

Finally Valida leveled with her. "Lets face it. You're in a lot of trouble. You can't get the key because you know that the other merfolk will kill the Prince and any other human they can get their hands on. You can't jut stay here because you'll just end up killing him. You can't leave because he will look for you and if you know there is a chance you will come back."

"So what should I do?"

"Leave and don't come back."

Ariana had never wanted to hit some one more in her whole life. Well maybe Castilar. "Didn't you just tell me why I couldn't do that?"

Valida gave her a demeaning look. "Be patient," she said slowly, as if speaking to a child. "I have a plan that can work out for both of us. I will take him off your hands."

Ariana wasn't sure she had heard that right. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I'm a sorceress, it's what I do. You know how easy it would be to perform a simple charm so that he forgets all about you and would it be so bad if he turned to me. Would you really wish him a life of misery as he misses you?"

Not appreciating the guilt trip, Ariana just glared at her. "I am in no way saying I approve of this but why would you need my permission?"

"Well that's the catch. Love spells are tricky. It's easy enough to do a spell but they're easily broken and bring up more problems then they solve. For instance I could easily give him a love spell and then another to make him forget about you but there is no knowing how long it would last and what could trigger a lapse. Love spells are unreliable. What we need is a proper spell. One where I transfer any feelings he has for you to me. He will remember you and everything that has happened but he'll wonder why on earth he wanted you."

Ariana couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"You know I'm right" Valida said, growing bored.

No excuses could come to her mind. Still, Ariana searched desperately through her mind, trying to find anything to get her out of this.

"What is in it for you?" Ariana asked suspiciously.

There was no point lying. "You know that sorcerers can see into the future? Well we know that Eric will be the best King that this kingdom has seen for over a thousand years. With him on the throne we'll never take over the kingdom. So you really think that your kind are the only ones who want this land? And let's face it, there are far worse people to be married too."

Valida was getting very bored and complained, "will you hurry up."

"I'm sorry" Ariana said, while she was wondering why she was apologising "but can I just have a second."

Unfortunately most of what Valida was saying made sense. Ariana knew that there was no other way out.

The look on her face showed Valida that they were in business. That evil smile returned and it was just as bad as before. "Let's do this."

To be honest, Ariana didn't pay much attention to the ceremony. Her thoughts were in other places, namely the future and what would happen after Eric no longer wanted her. She heard Valida chant in some other language and knew that it was happening. An eerie mist crept into the room and Ariana felt like the floor must be shaking. Suddenly Ariana felt something pass out of her, almost like a cold shoot of water. Only it wasn't water, it just looked like a strong shard of light. This light hovered for a few seconds before shooting to Valida, almost knocking her clear off her feet.

Then everything was normal. Ariana expected people to come running to investigate the noise but everything remained silent.

Valida took a few seconds recover and was once again cool and collected. "Nice doing business with you" she said as she headed for the door.

"Wait" Ariana called, not knowing what to say. "How will it happen exactly?"

Valida just smirked at her. "You'll see."


	10. A Love Shared

Eric didn't feel any different when he woke. His feelings were the same as when he when to sleep. He had always considered himself the opposite of a morning person but it seemed that he had meet his match as Ariana out slept him. He was determined to be there when she woke up but was informed by Dale "Are you prepared to wait till the afternoon?"

So Eric walked. He wasn't sure where, his vague intention was that he would try and find a flower stand to surprise her when she eventually emerged.

Finally a flower stall was spotted and he headed towards it.

The sight of Valida stopped him. He passed her by with a polite smile but suddenly he stopped as he felt a desperate need to look back and see her again. Suddenly everything about her was beautiful. Granted, she had been beautiful before the enchantment but it was never the kind of beauty that impressed Eric. Valida was a kind of harsh and scary beautiful. She was almost opposite of Ariana with her sharp features to Ariana's gentle and deadly straight black hair to Ariana's silvery curls. But there was something about this woman that made all thoughts of Ariana out of Eric's mind.

Still he thought of Ariana and went towards the flower stand. Despite his wishes he couldn't stop looking at her. He had a nagging feeling that he something to do at the flower stand but was struggling to remember. 'Flowers for Ariana' he thought to himself but couldn't remember why he would want to do such a thing. Instantly he became a nervous freak as he tried to think of the best way to approach her. Anything he would say must sound pathetic to a woman like her. His palms were sweaty, his breathing was funny. He remembered having these feelings quite recently but he couldn't remember why. 'Sure Ariana was beautiful, smart, funny and kind but she was nothing compared to this woman.'

He had to talk to her. He felt like his life would never be complete until he talked to her. So, nervously he walked over, constantly stopping, almost changing his mind but always determinedly continuing.

Ariana watched this while hidden behind a nearby stall. She watched as he finally talked to her. It was rather shocking to see such a scary woman pretend to be innocent and flirty. It was hard to recognise her. Maybe she had doubted the power of the spell because she had taken extra care in her appearance. Leaving behind the black leather she had instead opted for a simple dress, a little low cut for Ariana's liking. Her expression was the thing that had really changed. She almost looked kind, and rather nervous at the attention from a prince.

Some people had amazing acting skills.

So it was done. Ariana decided that she couldn't watch any more. She turned and sadly tried to figure out what to do next. She hadn't completed her task so could never return to the sea. And now there was no place for her here. Still, at least she had friends here. And somewhere to sleep. But could she stay in the same place as the man she loved and the woman she had set him up with?

Not having anything else to do, she went to see Sibra. "I want to sew a dress," she informed her.

Sibra laughed in her face. "So far you've only managed a pair of oddly sized gloves."

Ariana neglected to mention that those gloves had saved countless human lives from accidental touches of death.

"Can you teach me?" she said, hoping that she would stop laughing.

She did thankfully. "It will take a lot of work. No more slacking off."

"I'm counting on it."

…

People in the palace saw a rather strange sight that day; Bernard racing through the palace yelling "no! no! no!" at the top of his lungs. This went on for most of the afternoon until he finally found Eric.

"What you think you're doing?" he yelled at his friend "have you lost your mind?"

Eric didn't even seem to mind his friend craziness. He said playing with his food, staring happily off into the distance.

Bernard hated being ignored. Doing the only logical thing he could think of, he picked up Eric's plate and poured its contents onto Eric's head. It finally got his attention. Once again he yelled "What do you think you're doing?"

"With regards too?" Eric yelled back, still trying to get as much food of himself as possible.

"This new woman you've been seen with. Now I consider myself a supportive friend, when you were crazy over Ariana, I accepted it. And not just because the people loved her so much. And if the people love her than they love you and the King would have seen this and thought you were the best choice of King leaving me as your second in command and-"

"Is there a point to this story?" Eric interrupted.

"How can you do this? Your feelings couldn't possibly have changed that fast. So please explain to me how this whole thing is just a joke for some ridiculous purpose."

A shaking of the head was not what Bernard wanted to see. "I can't do that" Eric told him "I love Valida."

Slapping him seemed to be the only possible solution. Luckily Bernard held back. It was hard to say the least. At times he grew very close. He remembered his mother telling him to count to ten if he ever grew angry. Bernard counted to twenty. Then thirty.

"So" he finally said, through clenched teeth "tell me about this, Valida."

He instantly regretted asking. Eric rambled on about every little aspect about her and Bernard zoned out. All the while he planned any way that he could think of to make his friend see sense. From the small bits he did hear, this Valida didn't sound too great. But what was obvious was that Eric was smitten. Obviously listening to Eric was getting him nowhere.

"Eric can you just wait one moment" he interrupted and walked off. He had no intention of coming back.

"How long do you think this one will last?" he asked Eliza who was also looking concerned.

"Going by how quickly he has moved on from Ariana my guess would be no more than a week." She didn't look convinced. "There is something wrong here. Didn't you see him with Ariana? There is no way that was just a phase. Something is very wrong."

Sadly, this new phase did not last s shortly as they had hoped. The next few days Bernard had to watch as Eric spent all of his time either with Valida or talking about how much he missed Valida. Eventually Bernard made it a regular occurrence to mime hanging himself whenever Eric began his ramblings, much to Eliza's amusement. Eric never cared, no matter what Bernard did. His only emotion was shown with that goofy smile he sported for her.

All the while Eliza continued her claim of magic and as the days passed, it made a lot more sense to Bernard.

After a week he knew that he would have to do what he swore he would never do. Go into the palace library. To say the least, Bernard wasn't exactly what you would call an intellectual.

It took him a while to find it. He never ventured to that part of the castle. After the initial shock of all the books in one place, he managed to settle down and study.

A lot of what he learned make sense. And they all pointed to one solution. Ariana had to be the key to breaking any love charm. Full of new hope he ran to find her. She looked different to when he last saw her. She had lost the sparkle that she had once possessed. That spark that had made people instantly like her. Her skin looked paler, her hair droopier and she looked generally exhausted. He figured that it must be due to the defeat of losing Eric. It was, partially but it was also due to how long she had been away from the ocean. She had been forced to wear only long sleeved gowns and watch how her skirts swayed to hide her ever increasing number of scales. He was right about the exhausted part, everything was getting harder for her. Her feet were in agony, probably over use after never using them before.

He ignored all this "so how have you been?" he asked as he tried to break the tension.

She was still very confused as to why he was here. She shrugged and answered "pretty good."

He saw right through her lies. "I am just as mad at him as you are. Feel free to vent."

She just shrugged again. "Why would I be mad at him?"

He tried a different tactic. "So what exactly have you been doing?"

"I spend most of my time here," she said as she gestured around Sibra's store "she's teaching me to sew."

He looked disgusted. "But she's scary."

Ariana quickly shushed him. "She can hear everything," she whispered.

He was quickly silenced. "Will she hurt me?" he whispered.

"I think you're ok. She hates getting up. You're lucky that she's getting old and complains about aches and pains."

"Thank you old age."

A creak from the next room made both of them freeze in fear as they stared anxiously at the door, praying that she wouldn't come and yell at them. It seemed they were clear. "You cant really be happy with this. Working voluntarily for a woman who scares you. Are you still living at the tavern?" She nodded sadly. "You can't be happy with that," he said.

She shrugged "the people are good to me."

"So why are you still here. You still think there is a chance for the two of you and you want to work it out. Lucky for you, I have the solution. He has obviously been cursed."

He couldn't read her expression. Mainly because she was trying to hide her panic at how he was catching on. "Why would you think such a thing?"

"Trust me. I know Eric. You haven't had to be around him this past fortnight. At first he talked about nothing other than you and than suddenly it's all about Valida. I grew up with him and he never gets crazy over anyone the way he has recently. Once is acceptable because look at you. You're are the kind of girl who most guy's would go crazy over. But Valida? I guess she is pretty but she still terrifies me. People wouldn't go crazy over her because they're too scared to approach her. But Eric doesn't care about anything mean she does. He thinks it's adorable when ever she is rude or pushy or violent. And he gets violent if anyone dares say anything bad about her. That is not who he is. He doesn't care about anyone else anymore and is completely not himself."

She listened politely but he could see that he wasn't making an impact. "I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do."

He couldn't believe it. "You're really not going to do anything? You're going to sit by and watch the man you love be cursed to love someone else." She didn't bother to lie and tell him that she didn't love him. It was blatantly obvious by this point.

"Trust me it's for the best" she tried to say but he wouldn't let her finish.

"You know, I thought Valida was the worst possible thing for Eric but if you're going to just let this happen, then I guess I was wrong." With these words he stormed out.

Ariana slumped across the table, unable to hold back tears any longer. Sibra stormed in saying "would you mind keeping your personal issues outside of my store? I have ever so kindly offered to help you and I ask in return that you keep the noise down."

Ariana muttered an apology as she turned away, trying to hide her tears. Sibra still saw them and was unsure of what to do about it. She stopped yelling at least. Coming over to the table, she decided against saying anything comforting and instead looked at Ariana's poorly sewn sections of dress.

"This isn't terrible I suppose" she said, hoping it to be comforting. Ironically it was. This woman barley said anything and if she did it was criticism. This obviously hurt her and she quickly said "but you can't sew straight and it's fraying already." With that she quickly retreated back to the other room, muttering that all the emotion was making her feel nauseous.

So Ariana continued with her work, as she had been doing all week. She kept a strict timetable, rise early, work all day, go to bed early and repeat. Clay quickly tired of this and tried many times to force her into coming out. This is not an exaggeration. On one occasion he tried tying her up and carrying her out. Luckily Charlene interfered and there was minimal injury.

Meanwhile things weren't going so well at the palace either, namely due to Eric announcing his engagement.


	11. Impact

Everyone took a few seconds to process this. Ezra broke the silence by breaking out in laughter. He stopped when he saw the look Valida gave him. "Oh my, he's serious."

Expressions of confusions changed to shock. Except that of the King. He was furious. With a small gesture, guards came forward and grabbed Valida, pulling her forward to see the King.

"I don't know what witchcraft you have pulled on my son but I will not let you get away with it."

He was interrupted by Eric pulling out his sword and pointing it towards his father. "Release her or I swear I will make you regret it."

Ezra seemed to be enjoying this and began cheering under his breath. It was obvious that after this charade, Eric would never be getting the throne and Ezra couldn't be happier. Edlyn of all people shushed him. The Queen looked like she was about to burst into tears. "Eric please think about this."

He ignored her and continued to glare at his father. Both continued to glare, waiting for the other to crack. Finally the King barked "withdraw" to the guards who released Valida. She faked an annoying 'look at me, I'm scared' act which Eric easily fell for. He put his arm around her and while continuing to glare at his father.

"Let's go," he said to her, pulling her away.

"Eric if you leave you can kiss the kingdom goodbye because you will never be King," his father roared after him.

Eric simply shrugged, turned and walked out. The King looked as if he was about to explode, or pass out from rage, whichever came first. Bernard chose to overlook his anger and snuck after the couple. He found them whispering together down a small corridor. It was just the right size that he could hover around the edge without them seeing him. She looked really upset about something and Bernard whispered to himself "seems serious I could never listen in on such a personal moment." Then he disregarded this and snuck as close as he dared.

"They'll never understand," she was practically yelling at him. "He's already set the guards on me once, how long before he does it again? It's time Eric, we have to leave."

"Don't do it Eric" Bernard mouthed, hoping his friend could somehow hear him and understood.

This was not the case. "I'll do anything you want," he said in a tone that Bernard had never heard his friend use before.

"Organise a ship" she ordered him "we'll leave tonight."

"For you my sweet, we can leave before sunset."

Bernard held back to urge to hit his head repeatedly on the wall. Eric's footsteps made him snap back to his senses.

It is a shame he was not wiser. If he were, he would have noticed the sound of only one set of footprints.

Her anger stricken face snapped him into action but he too late and he she had hand wrapped excruciatingly tight around his neck.

"You think it's funny to eavesdrop?" she said in a terrifying voice. "Well it's the last thing you'll ever do!"

Thankfully, Eric heard commotion and came running back. Unthankfully, she was a quick thinker and leapt to the ground screaming. "He attacked me," she said in a mock shaky voice as she faked terror.

Before Bernard had a chance to defend himself, Eric had slammed his fist into his friends face. Falling backwards, Bernard fought to stay alert. From his position on the floor he could only see their feet as they strode away.

Pulling himself together, he ran.

He knew that Sibra loved peace and quiet but he didn't care at this point. Slamming the door open, he ran as fast as he could to Ariana. It seemed the running the whole way there was not as wise as he initially thought and it took him a few moments to regain his breath so he could sputter out "She's making him leave, tonight, before sunset."

Once again, Ariana let little emotion through. "I'm sorry but-"

He continued to sputter out "No time, for your, excuses." Finally he caught his breath. "It'll take Eric a bit more time to organise everything but they'll be leaving around sundown. I shall be stowing away and doing anything possible to stop my best friend making the biggest mistake of his life. I hope you'll do the same."

Not wanting to hear her excuses, he ran off again, constantly hating himself for not bothering to get a horse.

Ariana paused to take everything in. "She got her wish" she whispered to herself.

"So what are you going to do now?" Sibra asked, startling Ariana.

"Continue with the dress. I think I've finished the bodice."

"And after that?"

That question caught her off guard.

"Regarding?"

"The rest of your life."

It got Ariana thinking. What would be worse for Eric? The merfolk or the sorcerers? At least she could defend him from the merfolk. Valida hadn't said that she wanted to hurt him but would stop her when she grew tired of him?

"I'm going to crash that wedding"

Sibra nodded proudly. "And you haven't nearly finished the bodice, you haven't done the lining properly." But Ariana didn't hear this because she had already run out of the door.

Eric seemingly had taken it upon himself to load the ship without any help from workers so it was easy to sneak on board. It was a rather small ship so it was easy to find Bernard. "Is this hiding spot taken?" she asked as he recovered from the shock.

"I thought you were her, I was literally about to die in fright."

"So what's the plan?"

He hesitated. This hesitation didn't help Ariana's nerves. "I'm not sure exactly."

If they hadn't been hiding, she would have yelled at him but she had to settle for whispering in a very angry tone. "You man to say you went to all this trouble stowing away on a ship in the hopes that a plan would miraculously form?"

He nodded pathetically. "Ok give me a moment to think" he said and signaled for her to be quiet. "I've got it," he said proudly. "Actually no, that would never work. How about, no we'd almost definitely die."

"How about I just go and talk some sense into him?" she suggested.

He gave her an exasperated look. "What do you think I've been trying to do all week?"

"You forget that I'm better."

So she tried to find Eric, all the while praying that she wouldn't be with him. It was an odd feeling for her, being on a boat, Having finally mastered the art of walking on straight ground it felt like a large step backwards to try walking while rocking. Gripping a hand rail tight, she continued on, knowing that is she were caught, she would have no way to run. The slightest noise made her jump and freeze but other wise, there was no sign of either of them. Towards the end of the hallway she stumbled across Valida's quarters. The sorceress was talking to someone in a hushed tone. It wasn't Eric. Ariana had known enough sorcerers in her time to recognise one when she saw them. They didn't have similar features like merfolk did but their expression was always the same. It wasn't expressionless; on the contrary it was normally filled with something. But if this emotion was happiness it looked more like a smirk and if it were anger, there were no words to describe. The expression they all had was something very subtle, something you had to look for. It gave off a vibe of evil.

Ariana knew that it would be wise to hover and try and see what they were saying but now she knew that they were apart, she had to press on and find Eric.

"Trust Eric to be on the other side of the ship" she muttered as she hobbled back along the hallway. He jumped up when she entered but looked disappointed when he saw that it wasn't Valida. This wasn't the opening Ariana had wanted but it was better than nothing.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, barley interested.

"I could ask the same question," Valida said from the doorway.

Ariana quickly scanned for exits or weapons but nothing came to her and Valida was already beside her, holding her in place with a vice-like grip. "Eric do you want to see her?" Valida asked, in a sickly sweet tone.

"No" he replied "I only want to see you.

"Excellent. And as for you," she said as she tightened her grip on Ariana "I think it's time I taught you exactly who you're dealing with. I-"

Ariana never learnt what she was going to say as Bernard burst through the doorway, holding a chair of all things and hit Valida as hard as he could with it. A normal person would have gone flying across the room at such a blow but all she did was rock a little. Her head snapped in his direction and he got the full effect of her flaming red eyes. Cowering backwards he stammered "this isn't the fishing trip. I guess I'm on the wrong boat. I'll just go catch the next one."

"Eric darling, catch him." Bernard was never as strong as Eric who easily caught him and held him in place.

"Now back to you," she said with a smirk as she pulled Ariana from the room. Ariana cursed her decision to wear long sleeves and gloves that day. These were perfect when protecting humans but when needed to fight off a sorcerer they were not the best wardrobe choice. Valida appeared to barley be holding her but her grip held Ariana firmly where Valida wanted her. Eric pulled Bernard along behind them, trying to do anything to help Valida.

"Do you think it would be dramatic irony to drown you?" Valida asked as she threw Ariana towards the side of the boat. Ariana was sure that if the sorceress' intention was to drown her, than she would already be at the bottom of the ocean rather than slamming hard into the side of the ship. She didn't have time to reflect upon her wounds or regain her breath as she looked up and saw daggers flying towards her face. Rolling to the side she barley dodged them, continuing the idea that the sorceress was playing with her. Bernard yelled abuse at Valida but she didn't seem to hear them, to busy enjoying this prolonged abuse on the mermaid. Eric did nothing but do that sick smitten face, obvious oblivious to her acts of violence.

Eventually Valida grew bored of thinking of ways to almost kill Ariana. After the fireballs, everything lost its excitement.

Finally she turned to Eric "I've decided. I think you should kill her for me."

The fear on Ariana and Bernard's face showed Valida that she had selected the worst possible method.

Eagerly he took the dagger that she passed him. "I'd do anything for you."

Ariana tried to run but Valida tripped her with a flick of her hand. Eric was beside Ariana in a second but it wasn't to help her up like she had hoped. He had a determined look in his eyes as he held the dagger above her. She tried edging backwards, rolling, anything to get away but Valida's magic still held her in place.

He hesitated and it gave her a glimmer of hope. "Do it Eric" Valida yelled at him, losing all calm that she once possessed.

Eric drove the dagger towards her stomach and Ariana squeezed her eyes shut, trying to handle the pain and blot out Bernard's yells.

She seemed to be doing a good job, there was minimal pain. Cautiously opening one eye, followed by the other, she found no blood on herself. His hand had frozen, inches away from impact. He had lost the smitten face and instead looked confused.

"Just do it" Valida yelled again. The smitten look half returned but he shook it off. Still his arm raised again. This time Ariana refused to shut her eyes.

"Don't Eric. Fight her" Ariana said, refusing to break eye contact.

The dagger made impact. But it wasn't with Ariana. Suddenly Eric turned and threw it straight into Valida's shoulder. In her moment of shock Bernard broke through whatever curse she had put on him to remain still and punched her as hard as he could. Eric jumped up and grabbed some rope to tie help tie her up.

She was disorientated so they were actually succeeding. "If you think I'm going down that easily you are clearly mistaken." She managed to get her hand free and with a simple flick Ariana felt her body go tense. With a second flick she felt disorientated and she wasn't sure how but she ended up in the ocean, being dragged down fast. She fought to get back to the surface but only sank deeper. Her arms grew heavy and it was harder to swim. Eventually she knew it was hopeless. Looking up, she saw the sun above the water and remembered how she used to think it beautiful. Now she knew that it was more beautiful above the water. She felt oddly peaceful. The burning in her throat lessened and she felt like she was drifting off into a deep sleep. The last thing she saw was a flash of silver before her eyes finally closed.


	12. That Flash of Silver

"I can't find her," Eric yelled as he resurfaced.

"Look harder" Bernard yelled back but both knew that it was useless. Eric refused to believe she was gone and dove under again. Bernard longed to dive in and do anything he could to help but Eric had given him strict instructions to watch the ship and alert him if she resurfaced. Never feeling more useless he scanned the sea again and again but there was still no sign. All the while he waited on edge. Valida had disappeared directly after sending Ariana to her watery grave. Bernard could not help thinking that she would return. Surely death would be expected for the two of them. Sorceress didn't strike him as the type to only kill one of the group who had humiliated her. He also had a feeling that leaving Eric alive after Ariana's death would prove far more cruel.

Eventually Bernard had to intervene. He could see Eric growing exhausted with no intention of stopping. "Maybe she got washed back to shore. If you did it, anyone can" he yelled with no real belief. Eric was ready to grasp onto the slightest ray of hope and quickly climbed back aboard.

Neither man who remember a boat moving so slowly. Both couldn't find it in themselves to speak and silently watched the surface, praying that she would appear.

She never did.

Hope returned when they saw a small crowd of people gathered around the shore. Eric was practically leaping from the ship when he saw a flash of silver. Pushing people out of the way he dropped down to hold her.

"She has a heartbeat," he yelled to Bernard who was also racing over.

They tried everything to wake her up. Finally, gradually and slowly, her eyes opened. She looked confused and disorientated but she smiled at Eric. The moment was brought to a halt as she could coughed up an impressive amount of water.

She searched through her memories, trying to piece how she got there. The flash of silver before she passed out must have been the answer. "Thank you Florence" she murmured and wished desperately that he was there. She had never wished harder for the return of her tail. That feeling of drowning was terrifying, not to mention the embarrassment of being the first mermaid to drown.

Her conclusion was that Valida must have possessed great powers. Legs or no, Ariana was still a mermaid and this meant that she had the power to breath under or above the surface. The pendant around her neck seemed to be the source. But it's glow was faint as she crashed into the depths and dulled into nothingness. Stronger magic had blocked her breath as it was replaced with an agonising burn all over her throat.

There had been slight peace as the burning faded. Thinking back, it horrified her how that must have been the feeling of death.

These thoughts disappeared when she looked at Eric again, and felt safe. Again she was simply confused.

The one good thing about drowning was being saturated afterward and she took advantage by kissing him. For this moment she was blissfully happy. Then the cold began to set in and she was shivering uncontrollably. Bernard ushered the crowd back as Eric picked her up and carried her away. Her exhaustion fro drowning made her eyes heavy but she fought to stay awake. Anything to remember this moment of simply being with him.

She knew that when she awoke, planning would have to begin again to destroy him.

Her last thought was how much simpler life was with a tail.

Then sleep consumed her.


	13. Staying on Edge

Strange events occurred over the course of Ariana's recovery.

No one could understand how every physician who treated who grew ill shortly after. It was concluded that she could have a terribly sickness that spread easily and there were few physicians who came in the end.

The lucky thing slept through the entire thing. She would have hated the knowledge of how many people she inevitably hurt.

Awaking was a curse in many ways. The agonising throat burn's return was the most impending of these reasons. The main reason however, was the reminder of her task.

The sea still called out to her with promises of its enveloping rapture. The intolerable itching returned that informed her of the scales reforming.

The inner curious child of Ariana still enjoyed the time of her life as she explored the human world. Her mad drive for learning could have been from the control of said inner child, or more likely as a means to avoid Eric as much as she could muster.

Thankfully he learnt early on that she was supposedly opposed to contact. Little did he know that this limitation was for the purpose of his life.

Needless to say, Ariana had no plan. She never did. Days passed as she was unsure over whose side she was truly fighting for.

What she needed was someone to tell her.

And that someone came shortly.

It had been an uneventful morning previous. Bernard had taken it upon himself to teach the poor girl chess and she spent many an hour learning simply the piece names. So obviously the game would not fare well to her. Eliza took pity on her and hovered over her shoulder, whispering words of wisdom, much to Bernard's dismay. Eric happily played away at the piano, mainly because of Ariana's constant requests and his desire to do anything she asked. Clay was present also, but he grew bored of chess and music with a great pace and began drinking in the corner.

The happiness was broken by the door suddenly being thrust open. Ezra strode into the room with pride practically beaming off him. This would have been due to the beautiful woman on his arm.

There was something about her characteristics that seemed familiar to the humans.

"Attention all," Ezra said in that booming voice of him. "I would like to introduce you to a special young woman that has just come into my life. This is Christobelle."

It was clearly a ruse. In a desperate attempt to win back some pride, it seemed that Ezra had gone out with the mission of finding the most gorgeous woman he could to compete with all of the attention his brother had achieved. She would have to extraordinary to take the place of Ariana in the people's hearts. Practically everyone in the village rejoiced in the idea of their favourite prince falling for a commoner and this was only heightened when they meet her and her kindness was made obvious.

This new woman did not have the same aurar and obviously had a lot of work ahead of her. She looked around the massive room with an upturned lip and muttered, "it's not very big is it?" She looked at each other people in turn and muttered, "I wouldn't say much for it's inhabitants either."

Ariana rose from her seat, appearing extremely angry. "What gives you the right to judge us?"

Christobelle looked her up and down and uttered a single scoff. "My superiority obviously. Now sit down child."

"Child?" Ariana said in an indignant tone.

"Would you prefer fool?"

"Would you prefer a slap?"

"I could destroy you in a heartbeat."

"Well here is your chance."

All present watched in horror as the two strode up to meet in the middle of the room.

Then in a shocking turn of events they broke out enormous smiles and leapt at each other, not in the presumed fighting stance but in a deep embrace.

'What?" Ezra said but trailed out before he could form a question.

"Did I not tell you this was my baby sister?" Christobelle told him with a smirk. "Now I only needed you to get in the palace. So you can leave now."

"But," he stuttered, completely shocked at her change in character.

"Door is that way genius," she said in a bored tone and turned back to her sister. Ezra puffed out his chest in a feeble attempt to gain dignity. This failed but he strode out all the same.

"So we finally get to meet someone from Ariana's famous family?" Bernard said, more to himself as it was obvious that neither sister was paying attention. Finally they all saw the distinct characteristics shared between the two. The perfect faces with the sea blue eyes and the silvery blonde hair seemed obvious. Christobelle wore hers straight and cropped short around her face but the same beauty remained. She was also a considerable height taller than her sister, something that did not go unnoticed between the two.

"How was I the one stuck with the tiny things," Ariana muttered quietly.

"You anger the council, you get punished. But anyway," she turned to the others and said, "aren't' you going to introduce me?"

The sight of the humans reminded Ariana of the dire situation and this brought a realisation of how her sisters presence here may not be so innocent. She was suddenly precautious.

Introducing them in turn, she left Eric till last. She wanted there too be as much time possible before her sister learnt which innocent human was the target.

As soon as she heard the name, Christobelle was suddenly more alert. She had a smug look on her face that worried her sister.

"So it's not that I don't love you, but why are here?"

"I've come to take you home you fool."

It was the humans turn to be on edge. None of them wished to see Ariana leave, least of all Eric and he was quickly defensive. "Are you so sure that she wants to leave?"

Christobelle snorted, in a rather un-ladylike fashion and ignored him. "Come child," she said grabbing her sisters hands. "Let's go somewhere we can talk so I may inform you of my master plan."

"I'm not a child,' Ariana said as she pulled her hands back. This startled the other mermaid as it was not the reaction she had expected.

Turning to Eric, Ariana calmed him by saying, "just give me a moment with this crazy one here. I'll be right back." She gave him that special smile that never failed to result in a return.

Now Christobelle was the one of edge. Angered, she clasped her sisters arm and pulled her from the room. "What was that?" she said angrily, not caring how loud she was.

"Chris calm down," Ariana said but sadly her calming powers seemed to only work on Eric.

"Why aren't you leaping for joy right now? Did you not hear me? I have a full proof plan that will get you back in the ocean without destroying those hundreds of pathetic human lives that I know you want to protect."

These words made Ariana finally listen. So Christobelle continued, "your mission was to get the Prince to give that stupid key right? Well, you can't do that, if there is no Prince."

No longer listening, Ariana turned to leave. "Where are you going? Did you not hear the plan? It's perfect! One life instead of hundreds. And the council will have to give you back your tail as there is no possible way for you to complete it! We just have to make it look like an accident."

"I can't kill him Chris!" Ariana said and finally Christobelle figured it out.

"You don't. You can't possibly," she said softly, hardly able to form the words. "No!" she cried and slapped her sister on the face. "What do you think you're doing? Do you ever have a plan? There is no way that could work." Ariana couldn't say anything and avoided eye contact. Christobelle also had nothing to say anymore but filled the silence by smashing anything breakable she could find in the room.

"Chris!" Ariana called as she tried to hold her back.

Finally, taking many a deep breath, Christobelle seemed to regain control. "You are a fool sister," she said calmly. "But luckily I deem fit to help you." And before Ariana could stop her, she walked away.

Any help from the likes of that mermaid would not be preferable.

Eric saw her leaving and quickly joined Ariana. He had been close by as soon as he heard crashing and that protective instinct awoke. Thankfully he had kept his distance so nothing was heard.

He put his arm around her, seeing her obvious need for comfort. There was the initial jump on her part that always occurred as she assessed that he was not directly touching her. Satisfied in the clothing shield, she relaxed into the comfort.

Sadly he was still on edge, Ariana seemed different and the idea of her leaving worried him. The wild sister was gone for now, but how long would she stay gone for?

He was right to stay on edge.

Christobelle planned to murder him later that night.


	14. One Last Prayer

The night began well fairly enough for Prince Eric.

After all, it is the dream of most men to spend time with a beautiful young woman.

Ariana had looked radiant as she knocked softly at his door. As per usual, all previous thoughts fled his mind when he looked into her eyes. She had that little smile again. The one that made his heart skip a beat. "Are you busy?" she said, to which he shoved the papers to the furthest corner of the desk.

"Never," he said with a smile.

Taking a deep breath, she finally and nervously spoke her mind. "Chris wishes for me to leave with her. Soon. And it got me thinking. I finally realise that I don't wish to leave. I don't want to leave you."

Happiness rising deep within him, he practically leapt up to kiss her. He thanked the spirits that once for once, she did not pull away and kissed him back, just as passionately.

But something was not right.

"Are you alright?" he asked, hardly believing himself as he pulled away slightly.

"Excuse me?" she said, not attempting to hide her confusion.

"You kiss differently," he finally said.

She raised an eyebrow. "I can stop if you want."

He was not a fool and dropped the issue.

It was not simply the kiss that was different but the way it made him feel. Normally he was unable to feel anything as the feeling of practically soaring took hold.

If anything, he felt exhaustion at that moment.

Once again, he pulled away but this was not to speak. This was to ease the suddenly aching pain in his head as his entire body suddenly felt hopeless heavy. Ariana attempted to support him but her small frail frame held no hope. Worry covered her face as she helped him to the bed. He fell down to meet the mattress but cried in pain as it created a sensation of falling on sharp stone. Numbness began to overcome the pain and with went the ability to move.

All worry from Ariana's face vanished as a look of boredom overcame it. Looking at the clock, she tapped her foot, annoyed at the amount of time it was taking him to die.

Pulling a small vile from a pocket of her cloak, she transformed back to her original form.

She relished the look of horror in Eric's eyes as he began to realise his fate. Remembering what she done, Christobelle grimaced and spat in a desperate attempt to fight her distain of touching a human.

Once again, she grew bored and stroked his forehead in an attempt to hurry along the magic as well as to belittle him. "Come now," she said gently, "this is all for the best. But I'm afraid that if you don't die soon, I will be forced to experiment with all of your fancy looking weapons. I have always wondered what a prince's inside look like. On second thought, take your time."

Magic had long since taken Eric's voice and he could only watch in horror and anger as she skipped away to play with the many daggers she had pulled over. Her cackles of glee made Eric wish his death would hurry too.

His thoughts were not on his own torture however. She was obviously a crazy woman and he prayed that Ariana would flee her. His fear was overcome with the sadness that he would never see her again.

His eyes were the last part of him to grow heavy and with it came the horrid realisation that he was about to die.

With one last prayer for his love, he gave in to the darkness.


	15. A Plan of Murder

Ariana did her best to ignore the odd look the guard was giving her but her increasing feeling of discomfort made this rather difficult. It made it rather difficult to listen to Eliza who thankfully was too caught up in whatever she was rambling about to take notice of her uninterested audience.

The poor thing was rather confused when the distant sound of talking stopped and she realised that she was alone. Looking closely, she could see the distant figure of Eliza and realised how deeply she must have been thinking about the desperate situation. Hoping Eliza had not taken offence, she went back to worrying.

As she was already studying the room, Ariana looked once again to the guard who, much to her continuing discomfort was still giving her that look. A mixture of amusement and possible dark humour hinted that they seemed to share a joke that only he knew of.

The discomfort grew as he left his post to approach her. His whole persona made her nervous. It seemed that only Clay was able to have the horrid smell and not repulse her.

Subtle cringing was obviously not a clear sign for him as he spoke, saying, "you were rather quick weren't you?"

She tilted in her head, showing her confusion with no words. He chuckled and continued, "I guess you must have had other things on your mind when we met before. I was posted outside of Prince Eric's room earlier tonight. Do you not remember? I let you in. You were dressed rather, well, I'll will just say dressed for a clear purpose."

Her conclusion was that he was obviously mad. She laughed nervously as she edged away. "Yes it has been quite a night. Now if you will excuse me-"

He did not like her disinterest. "Just another royal whore," he muttered, loud enough for her to hear.

She spun around, enflamed with rage. "How dare you," she said which was only answered with dark laughter.

"Well I am not the one who was seen entering the Prince's room earlier in the dark hours of the night."

"What?" she sputtered but paused as her mind began to spin with the possibility. "Are you saying that you saw me with Eric on this night."

He sighed, "a whore with no brains. How original. For the final time, yes."

She did not wait for his next pointless insult as the she ran as fast as those pathetic legs could muster. Cursing herself, she realised how foolish it had been to assume Christobelle had simply accepted her sister's lack of plan and left in anger. Ignoring her aching side and burning throat, she ran on. "Curse these damn legs," she panted at the countlessly long winding staircase. Many a person gave her an odd confused look that she ignored. She must have looked a sight but she did not care thanks to the realisation of her sister's plan. A plan of murder.

The room had never seemed so far as countless corridors did nothing but give her more time to imagine the terrible acts her sister would be performing. Or to imagine the state in which she would find the man she loved. Knowing her sister, he would be alive but in unimaginable agony and begging for death.

Finally that familiar corridor came into sight and she continued to run. Bursting open the door, Ariana leapt at her sister and both went crashing to the floor. The elder mermaid was dazed from the hard impact that the stone floor had on her head and the other took advantage to desperately check Eric. He seemed unscathed but horribly pale. Putting her head as close to him as she dared, she listened closely for sounds of breathing.

A crash of water suddenly collided with her, sending her flying into the wall at great speed. Desperately scrambling to stand, she found herself trapped behind a wall made of nothing but liquid. Sight was the only thing that could escape as the water formed a solid barrier.

All she could do was watch as Christobelle stumbled to her feet with a dark look on her face.

"Please," Ariana called out. No other words seemed possible. It made no impact on her sister who strode towards Eric.

Ariana knew what she would have to do to save him. And that was to destroy him herself.

"A week! Just give me a week and I swear that I will get you the key!"

The pause showed that her words had at least been heard and were being considered. "You may want to kill him now, but you still want the power source. And I can get that. All I ask for is one week."

Anyone could see the internal struggle occurring in the other mermaid. Behind the beautiful exterior she was a cold-hearted maniac who wanted nothing more than to rip apart the pathetic human who dared steal away her baby sister. But there could be time for that later, as merfolk took back the land and finally had their revenge.

Merfolk are held by their words. There would be no escape. "And if you fail?" Christobelle asked simply.

Pausing for courage, Ariana whispered, "then I kill him myself."

The wall around her exploded as water shot around every corner of the chamber. When every last droplet settled, there was no trace of the elder mermaid.

An eerie peace returned as the immediate threat fled.

The impending threat however was only just beginning as the burst of water broke Eric from the magic sleep that held him.

He had no time to be confused as he sputtered past the sudden cold. Ariana had blankets ready in an instant and was by his side, assuring him of safety.

Leaping away, he drew his sword at an a amazing pace and had it close to her throat. "How do I know that it's really you?"

She remained calm. After all, this was far from the worst danger she had been in that night. "The first day we meet, you bought me shoes. I made you wear woman's shoes." With that embarrassing fact, he sunk down in relief.

"You wouldn't tell anyone that would you?" he asked nervously.

She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, hoping that the water protect him as well as silencing him from questions.

This could only work for so long as he slowly asked, "so I probably don't want to know, but why has my chambers been saturated after I was attacked by your sister while she was the spitting image of you?"

Pausing to desperately think of a lie went longer than she expected. It was a rather difficult case to explain after all. "I told you my family was mad," she said with a false smile and he knew better than to question.

"But she is gone now?" he said cautiously, still slightly on edge. She just nodded. "But you are not?" he continued, trying to hide the happiness at this statement. She nodded again.

He put his arm around her happily. This only added to her guilt as she remembered her deadline.

Whatever happened next, she knew that this happiness would soon be gone.

But pain, there would be plenty of.


	16. Battle Approaches

It is amazing how fast a week can go.

In all fairness, it was far less than a week.

Ariana had allowed herself one morning of happiness as she dared ignored the impending problem. Eliza had always been an early riser and wished for everyone to travel down to the beach. Bernard was the opposite of a morning person and had to be physically dragged. Eliza took great joy in this. It was rather amusing to see how much stronger she was than him. Especially as she had such a small frame compared to him.

"Is either of those two aware of how much they love each other?" Ariana asked Eric.

"I have asked myself that for years," he said with a smile. Things were quickly turned romantic between them and she hastened her step, seemingly in an attempt to catch up with the other two.

Eric spoke nothing of it but it was obvious that again something was bothering her. This was not such a wild accusation. There was any number of things that could be the culprit. But he knew better then to ask for he knew that he would be granted nothing. With these thoughts came a realisation. He really didn't care. He loved her too much to care.

Upon reaching the beach, Ariana's troubles only heightened as the smell of the sea created a deep yearning inside of her. She longed for the return of that peace that could only come form being surrounded in the depth. She did not dare even stick a toe in the water for fear that she would never leave it again. She thanked the spirits that she was not Bernard at that point. He was given no choice over being thrown into the waves. Eliza could only do so much herself and she quickly called Eric over to help her. Ariana feigned shyness and a sudden feeling of cold and told him to go on without her.

Suddenly alone, she studied her surroundings. It seemed an age ago that she had woken up here. So much had changed. She laughed at her past self who had thought life was complicated at that point. If only she could have warned her past self of what was to come.

The water continued to taunt and she looked in any other direction possible. A figure off toward the distance caught her attention. The silver hair stood out horribly. Christobelle had returned. With one quick glance to check Eric was preoccupied, she ran off to meet her sister.

'You have some nerve, showing your face here. If Eric saw you he could kill you."

Christobelle scoffed at the idea of a pathetic human having any power over her. "Well I am not here to see him am I? I came to see you." Both mermaids seemed on edge. "Now I am aware that I granted you a week for this task, but I spoke to Castilar. He told me that the council has not accepted this." Ariana was given no chance to interject. "They have given you three days to get the key. If you have not completed the task at this time, Castilar will be sent to kill your Prince."

A shiver ran through Ariana at these words. Castilar had a reputation. No matter how much Christobelle enjoyed killing humans, she was nothing compared to Castilar. Death would be kinder for such a luxury would not be granted from Castilar until a multitude of pain had been given.

"We had a deal!" Ariana said angrily.

There was a change in Christobelle. Gone was the angry soul from yesterday. The only explanation seemed to be that she was scared. "You are in over your head. For goodness sake, please think for once." The momentary sign of weakness was gone and Christobelle returned to her previous haughty self. "But since I am such a kind sister, I have decided to help you."

"I have seen your 'help' and I have no wish for it."

"For goodness sake, in three days you have to leave. Use this. Let him know that he could lose you and see what he will do to have you stay."

Eric had finally noticed the confrontation on the beach and was quickly racing to Ariana's side. "You are not welcome here," he said in a dangerous tone, sword in hand.

Christobelle let out a deep giggle. She may love her sister and want to help, but this could never mask her hatred for humans. How easy it would be to reach over and let the magic flow. Ariana was young, she still knew little of what a fully-grown mermaid could accomplish. Christobelle had loved to learn. Upon gaining her legs, she had not gone straight to see her sister. First, she had taken the time to meet a few humans. These humans had not lived to tell the tale. It gave her a rush to see what she could do to them. Some of the bodies had been unrecognizable. Her dark smile faltered a little when she saw Ariana and Eric together. Something changed in her sister the moment he was beside her. Christobelle hated to admit it, but she could almost feel something simply being in their presence. She hated this.

"I was just leaving," she said in a bored tone. She enjoyed how on edge he was and this brought back that dark smile. Turning back she called, "Oh and Ariana, do not forget. Three days."

Eric refused to lower his sword until she was almost out of eyesight. "Three days until what?"

Ariana could not look him in the eye. "Until I have to leave." The other two could see something big must be occurring and they kept their distance. Ariana found herself wishing that they were, simply to distract from this disaster. Eric clearly needed some kind of explanation and what could she possibly tell him? "It is not safe for me here. You have seen what my sister will do. Try and understand, she is one of the nice members of my family. It is just easier if I leave."

This apparently would not do. "I can protect you!" he told. "I hate that you are in trouble and not trust me enough to let me help you."

She sighed, hating that she would have to take her sisters advice. "Well what future is there here? For the short time I have been here, you have already left me for another woman and almost married her."

'That is not fair!"

"But it is a truth. I'm sorry but I need to know that if I stay, there will be a future."

She could see how deep in thought he was. Soon he would think of the key. After all, it would be the only logical answer. The key was more simply a means to open the gate. It was a symbol of trust. A future ruler of a kingdom trusts someone they love with something that could easily destroy everything. Ariana hated how this trust was so falsely placed. Now she was only making it worse as he seemed so proud of himself upon coming to this solution.

"In three days, we will hold a ball," he said, thinking to surprise her. "All will be clear then, just promise me that you will be there.

At least she knew what a ball was. If he had said that term a few days previous, she would have embarrassed herself. Such events were almost all that Eliza spoke of. She knew that she could not last three days. The guilt would eat away at her until she was unable to even look upon him.

So she agreed, but only if she was allowed the time to visit Sibra and make her own gown for the occasion. Under this pretense, she would have to be allowed freedom form him as this task was close to impossible. In the time she had already spent with the seamstress, the only thing she had managed to form was an interesting looking pair of gloves. She considered them a success as they performed their task of covering her hands and lower arms. Others laughed at their appearance. Eric frowned at such a request but would grant her anything. He attempted to find a way to suggest she options for the very plausible event of her failure. To Ariana, failure was not an option.

At least in this one small area.

.

.

.

Ariana had never gone through such abuse as she went through over the next few days. Sibra hated failure and it was impossible to meet her standards. Every minor mistake resulted in anger, and Ariana made a great deal of these.

She loved every second of the abuse. In a funny way, Ariana liked to think of it as karma for the lies she had already told and the great betrayal that was coming. In all fairness to her lack of skill, her mind was not often on sewing. All time was spent desperately thinking of a plan.

There seemed only one option. She had to get that key. From there, she would find some way to have everyone in the kingdom taken to safety. She was no fool and knew that this would not be easy. It was extremely probable that she would be exposed during this time but this would have to be the price to pay. She would rather Eric hate her than face death.

This desperate excuse for a plan kept her mind far from the tasks at hand. But she also possessed determination. This determination worked well with the lack of attention, as it seemed to even out and, with minimal help, she completed her gown.

Looking at it properly was not an option. As long as she avoided this, she could pretend that it was going to look good. Sibra constantly pointed to a rack of finished dresses, indicating that these would be available. Her lack of confidence would have hurt if Ariana's mind was not constantly focused on other areas.

The light from outside the window shone in and became tinted with the blood red, informing all present that the sun was setting. It was the third day.

The door burst open as Eliza bounded in, looking stunning in a gown of dark green. Her hair was piled atop her head and her many jewels gleamed in the last fleeting dashes of sunlight.

"You look beautiful," Ariana sighed, almost forgetting her troubles.

"I shall be nothing compared to you, when I am through with you that is. Why aren't you dressed?" Sibra scoffed, expressing her doubts. "Well go on!" Eliza said, barley able to contain her excitement. "Go and try on the dress!" She practically shoved her back, proving how dangerous excitement can be.

A smile passed over Ariana. The action seemed odd under the circumstances. And then she was panicked again. The panic of the night was momentarily pushed aside by the panic of the failure of the dress. Sibra appeared beside the curtain. Her expression was unreadable as she offered to help with the back. Ariana had no idea what qualities made a good or bad gown so she knew not what to expect. It appeared to remain on her body fine. And the fact that Sibra said nothing negative could be seen as a good sign. After all, the woman never passed up an opportunity to express concern. All the while, Eliza grew bored and called out encouragement, hoping the speed along the process.

Finally the curtain was pulled. Eliza was clearly in shock. The question was, good or bad shock? The shock was pushed aside as she pulled up a bad she had been carrying. "The dress is only the first step," she said. Ariana was then forced to sit as Eliza ran a brush through her hair and began twirling sections about. Then jewelry was selected and odd substances were rubbed on her face.

All the while, Ariana was terrified.

"Just look in the mirror," Sibra said, clearly amused.

Ariana forgot to breath when she saw her reflection. She hated to be vain but she had never considered herself more beautiful than she was at that moment. The dress flowed almost like a Rembrandt of the ocean. The colours worked perfectly. Light blue silk had been topped with a thin silver to create a shimmering effect. "I told you blue was your colour," Sibra said. Then she got bored and hobbled away.

Eliza joined her at the mirror. "Now who is beautiful?" she said softly.

"It's the dress, and everything else that you did."

Eliza scoffed. Ariana turned to face her. It was hard to describe the moment. "Thank you," she finally said. "For everything. You have always been so kind to me."

"What are sisters for?" Eliza said. The words cut Ariana like a knife as she was embraced.

They were not alone for long as Clay, Charlene and Dale also burst through the door. They too had never been to a ball and were enjoying every second. Darlene spent what seemed like an age fawning over Ariana as she almost teared up upon seeing her. Eliza took this as the nicest compliment that could be bestowed upon her hard work.

"Just like women," Dale grumbled as he pulled at his new expensive clothing. His grumbling could not mask his excitement.

Clay downed more of his flask and let his eyes wander around the room. Eventually they settled on the clock as he realized how late they were.

"Battle stations people!" he called.

No truer words were ever spoken.


End file.
